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tv   U.S. House of Representatives  CSPAN  August 22, 2013 5:00pm-9:00pm EDT

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-- just now we have seen the young voices panel make an opening statement at the podium. mr. president, would you rather speak from up here? ok. >> hello, everybody. on this compliments conference. great speakers, great subject coast tond a wonderful coast audience. this is terrific. i am honored to be part of it, and am aware of the fact that there is a crisis in higher education. textbooks cost too much. it is a fact that tuition is too high, and that is a problem, not a crisis. is a serious problem, although not a crisis yet, that students graduate from college with way too much student debts. a problem, not a crisis. parking is in adequate on
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practically even campus. students gain 15 pounds the first months they attend college. that is a problem, not a crisis. crisis in american higher education in my opinion is that there is 22 million students in n colleges and universities, and 21.5 million of them attend colleges and universities so far the left that they cannot see the middle- of-the-road or the telescope. is that they are not just liberals, but many of these schools -- and i am talking about famous, importance, wealthy colleges and universities -- are subverting the values not only of america, but of western civilization. i do not say that on these
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or maybe 98%e 99% of american students attend that every single student fox's attitude, nor every faculty or staff member. i'm talking about what the germans would call the zeitgeist , the spirit, the overall tenor. on colorado christian we sayity's campus, jesus is lord. almost campuses, they say jesus is a joke. everybody says that, but that is a general spirit. spirit is ok to follow -- jesus, but do not tell anybody for that. do not cite jesus for anything. it is not the thing to do. at the campus of colorado christian university, we can say error.le is in erro not in
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we say moral absolutes, and yet moral relatively is the de facto religion of most college campuses. we say capitalism or sometimes with deference to those who spoke a moment ago, we might say free enterprise or entrepreneurship on most campuses, the preference is something quite different. when you call it socialism, redistribution of wealth and income, communism, social justice, it is quite different than the traditions of american and western civilization. we think it is appropriate for men to live separately from women until they are married. on most cap as is, mixing sex in dormitories is increasingly common. we say whatever is true, noble, dutiful, if there is anything has merit, focus your thought on this. the truth of the matter is almost campuses, the focus is on things that undermine all of those values.
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if i have left you with the impression that colorado christian university is a little old fashion, that maybe we are a little reactionary, actually i have communicated to you what i intended to communicate. have raised in your mind the question of whether or not many of our colleges and universities contribute to the cultural decadence that undermines the character and more row and future of america, well, then, i have told you the truth. they give for listening. -- thank you for listening. .> thank you, now peter would i think your work at the national association of scholars in the context of the bravery, the indomitable spirit, the unwillingness to accept that something cannot be changed and turned around in the same spirit
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, saying the slave trade end, tell us about the crisis in american education. coming to colorado, i do not need to make the case that higher education [indiscernible] complicatedmore thing, and your question if it matters. i will answer those questions in their entirety. let me say more about who i am and what nas is. i am an anthropologist, who studies savage tribes, and right now i am studying a particularly savage tribe, the only known tribe of cannibals so fierce they want to devour their own civilization. i am talking about the american progressive academics. organization that in its own words seeks to foster
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intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reason scholarship and civil debate in universities. those are fighting words to the leftists. i will give you an example of the outgoing head of the american association of professors, cary nelson, recently said of us that we engage in sclerotic wailing about restaurant civilization and maniacal opposition to m.litics in the classroo another historian writes about -- tog an ideologically restructure and privatize dean relentless and rogatory toward the hard- working and underpaid professors. different views here, to simplify.
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one is that american higher education is the best in the world, that it is only getting better, at its achievements in bringing critical thinking did students are unsurpassed. the other, which i represent, is that american higher education is in rapid decline, that it is coasting on its civilizational capital and not rebalancing that capital. does any of this matter? it goes to the question, are our best days still ahead of us? highnswer from taking error education seriously is that is a doubtful proposition. our best days depend on us being more than a civilization that , material wealth, abundance. we can have all the cheap energy stillbs in the world, it be unworthy and profoundly miserable at a certain level. to have to profit us the world and lose our soul. it was mentioned our goal should
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not be making life easier for the short term, but making life better for generations. the only way to do that is to take higher education seriously, and that is something that the conservative movement has seen can only fail in the last couple generations. thrive, higher education has to uphold virtue. think of what victor davis hanson was telling us. our severity and abundance without virtue is imperial rome at its worst. it is decadence. it is hollywood. --bears a certain resemblance to the american college campus. shape what colleges do is students in subtle ways. they may call subjects disappear. make ideas seem irrelevant or out of date. they marginalized and ridiculed -- think of what we were told about earlier about the mileage
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-- the marginalized and mocked and malign. order ofblished an approbation. some things are good and some things are bad. the bad things you can ignore. they celebrate identity politics over everything else. so i'm going to have to hold off on my answer until later. >> take a minute more and preview that for us. >> i will preview that what we need here is a robust as of that to conservatives save our civilization we have got to really take hold of the issues in higher education. we know what those are. the racial preference regime, the higher education level thomas the rise of a new form of katie -- 12 education, the use of the sustainability movement to indoctrinate students in a hatred of capitalism and free markets. use of our student loan
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fiasco to create even more dependency among american students about the rise of a new form of anti-americanism. that is the briefest of lists of the maladies we have ahead of us. what do we do about these? we make them part of our political agenda, where they right now have just the most in u.s. hold on the interests of politicians, who think the way to fix higher education is to shovel money at it. that is the worst way to reform it. >> thank you, peter would. -- wood. jim when he was in the shoes of jenny best bar ton. he was looking at the situation and said something has to change. abi should be part of the change. we want you this weekend to look
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presenters andur think, that could be me, where he or she has come from and what they are not intruding. i would like to do the same, or that i know somebody else who could you doing the same. we have an elected region of the colorado, af faithful republican, but he was a go along, get along individual who somehow decided it was ok that the faculty rather than the orple of the elected regents the appointed president would run the university of colorado. it's the story up there, jim. >> thank you all, very much. take you, senator andrews and anderson, for asking me to be here today at this spectacular summit. i was gratified to hear the perspectives of the young people in the prior session. i learned quite a lot.
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to us.ll be helpful i am not speaking on behalf of of the board of regents, but on the half of myself, and not speaking on behalf of the university. does the becoming a regent of the university of colorado in 2008, i have focused on issues facing our fine university. the first is the course of the financing and budgeting of the $3 billion per year organization. the second is my favorite among which is returning the colorado buffalo football program and basketball program to the national prominence that it used to be in and will be soon. there is anybody that questions may, just keep tuned. it will happen soon, i promise. finally, the most important issue has already been addressed by the two prior speakers, and that is addressing her deficiency of intellectual, ilisophical departments
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of our faculty. recruited me and sue who is in the room today -- give us a wave, sue -- sue has taken the baton from tom has become a worry engine preparing us on. after my election tom and i proposed a guiding principle to include intellectual diversity. i assure you that as we are and no mean,ord, this was sure. unfortunately, over the next several years we were unable to perceive any meaningful change. mind is no question in my that our faculty have become quite homogeneous. almost to the point of a group think. in their liberal or progressive clinical stance.
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somehow i doubt i need to back up this contingent in front of this particular audience, as we all understand this is a significant problem afflicting many if not all our major universities across the country. isoncern is that group think about as far away from the pursuit of truth as we can get. and absent a genuine intellectual diversity of our factual, our students are robbed of the rich soup of a stimulating and educational environment. restricted by no discernible movement, we asked chancellors to report to us on any progress in the intellectual diversity guiding principles. we were told all is well, not to worry, r versus being made, and the quality of education remains superb. my response was that it is clear to me that conservatives are just not welcomed. a you might imagine, this
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sentiment was challenged. five weeks ago at our meeting in two resolutions were proposed. the first was to elevate discrimination against individuals because of their political or philosophical view --the same level of concern potential disciplinary action as we consider discrimination against individuals or their religious preference, their race, or gender identity. thank you. i will show you my bruises here. the second resolution was to obtain a campus climate survey of the university performed by an independent outside entity in order to assess our degree of intellectual diversity and to determine whether discrimination is occurring against members of our university community. this resolution passed in endlessly and will be expeditiously and commented.
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-- implemented. were bruises. we hope to know results this winter. during the several hours of discussion and testimony that resulted from the introduction of these resolutions, professors mark and robert both highly respected, conservatives to mugabe's testimony -- gave testimony describing their observations. both ascribed a uniformity of faculty with strong leftward bias. i guess i am about that. >> doing fine. we love how the story is unfolding. >> the american association of university professors has registered objection to our board actions, including our plans to obtain a survey. you may read these comments published in the journal inside hider education, published during the first week of july.
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among other concerns, it was claimed that our campus survey was merely an ideological survey and may lead to a political litmus test in our hiring or assessment of our faculty. i response is that nothing of this sort is intended or allowed by our current law. the unter concern to aaup is that it appears to be eager to uphold the fine levels of academic freedom as it benefits in -- and enhances the agendas of its member for festers. obvious consequences are the current strong tenure system in -- and the hands-off mandate to university administrations and governing bodies. and major university faculty in general have been loath to take responsibility for the protection of the integrity of our most cherished principle of academic freedom.
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throughout the free w expect academic freedom protections and privileges will withino all participants higher education. unfortunately, faculty hiring and even firing practices have resulted in quite ingenious faculties. what a tragedy for higher education. for subparula education. thank you. coming up in about 45 minutes, the randolph institute hosts a panel discussion concerning this 50th anniversary of the march on washington. naacprs include a former activist. along with julian bond, the cofounder of the student nonviolent were knitting committee, and the reverend jesse jackson. but first, president obama from
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earlier today on education policy. this is about 40 minutes. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> hello, buffalo! hello, bulls! well, it is good to be back in buffalo, good to be back in the north. i want to begin by making sure
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we all thank silvana for the wonderful introduction. give her a big round of applause. her mom and dad are here somewhere. where are they? i know they're pretty proud. there they are right there. give mom and dad a big round of applause. a number of other people i want to acknowledge here -- first of all, our secretary of education, arne duncan, who's doing a great job. one of the finest governors in the country, your governor, andrew cuomo, is here. your outstanding mayor, brian higgins, is here. give him a big round of applause.
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what? >> the mayor is byron brown! >> byron brown. that's -- i'm sorry, byron. what i meant was -- your congressman, brian higgins, is here. your mayor, byron brown, is here. this is what happens when you get to be 52 years old. when i was 51 everything was smooth. but your congressman and your mayor are doing outstanding work. we just rode on the bus over from the airport, and they were telling me that buffalo is on the move. that was the story. a couple other people i want to acknowledge -- suny chancellor nancy zimpher, is here, doing a great job.
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university president satish tripathi is here. and we've got all the students in the house. thank all the students for being here. now, today is a check-in day at the dorms. so i want to thank all the students for taking a few minutes from setting up your futons and your mini-fridges just to come out here. i hear that the last sitting president to speak here was millard fillmore.
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and he was actually chancellor of the university at the same time -- which sounds fun, but i've got enough on my plate. this is our first stop on a two- day road trip through new york and pennsylvania. and after this i head to syracuse -- yay, syracuse -- to speak with some high schoolers. tomorrow i'm going to visit suny binghamton and lackawanna college in scranton. but i wanted to start here at university at buffalo. and i wanted to do it for a couple reasons. first, i know you're focused on the future. as i said, talking to the mayor, he was describing a new medical
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school and new opportunities for the high-tech jobs of tomorrow. so there's great work being done at this institution. i also know that everybody here must be fearless because the football team kicks off against number 2, ohio state, next weekend. good luck, guys. it's going to be a great experience. it's going to be a great experience. it could be an upset. and third, and most importantly, i know that the young people here are committed to earning your degree, to helping this university to make sure that every one of you finishes in
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four -- make sure that you're prepared for whatever comes next. and that's what i want to talk about here today. over the last month, i've been visiting towns across the country, talking about -- yes, feel free to sit down. get comfortable. >> we love you! >> thank you. i love you, too. over the last month i've been out there talking about what we need to do as a country to make sure that we've got a better bargain for the middle class and everybody who's working hard to get into the middle class -- a national strategy to make sure that everybody who works hard has a chance to succeed in this 21st century economy. now, i think all of us here know that for the past 4 1/2 years,
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we've been fighting back from a brutal recession that cost millions of americans their jobs and their homes and their savings. but what the recession also did was it showed that for too long we've seen an erosion of middle- class security. so, together, we saved the auto industry. together, we took on a broken health care system. we invested in new technologies. we started reversing our addiction to foreign oil. we changed a tax code that was tilted to far in favor of the wealthy at the expense of working families. and add it all up, today our businesses have created 7.3 million new jobs over the last 41 months. we now generate more renewable energy than ever before. we sell more goods made in america to the rest of the world than ever. health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years. our deficits are falling at the
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fastest rate in 60 years. here in buffalo, the governor and the mayor were describing over a billion dollars in investment, riverfront being changed, construction booming -- signs of progress. so thanks to the grit and the resilience of the american people, we've cleared away the rubble from the financial crisis. we've started to lay the foundation for a stronger, more durable economic growth. but as any middle-class family will tell you, as folks here in buffalo will tell you, we're not where we need to be yet. because even before the crisis hit -- and it sounds like buffalo knows something about this -- we were living through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, most families were working
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harder and harder just to get by. manufacturing was leaving, jobs moving overseas, losing our competitive edge. and it's a struggle for a lot of folks. so reversing this trend should be, must be washington's highest priority. it's my highest priority. i've got to say it's not always washington's highest priority. because rather than keeping focus on a growing economy that creates good middle-class jobs, we've seen a faction of republicans in congress suggest that maybe america shouldn't pay its bills that have already been run up, that we should shut down government if they can't shut down obamacare. >> boo --
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>> that won't grow our economy. that won't create jobs. that won't help our middle class. we can't afford in washington the usual circus of distractions and political posturing. we can't afford that right now. what we need is to build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class in america, focus on that -- a good job with good wages, a good education, a home of your own, affordable health care, a secure retirement. bread-and-butter, pocketbook issues that you care about every single day, that you're thinking about every single day. and we've got to create more pathways into the middle class for folks who are willing to work for it. that's what's always made america great. it's not just how many
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billionaires we produce, but our ability to give everybody who works hard the chance to pursue their own measure of happiness. that's what america is all about. now, there aren't many things that are more important to that idea of economic mobility -- the idea that you can make it if you try -- than a good education. all the students here know that. that's why you're here. that's why your families have made big sacrifices -- because we understand that in the face of greater and greater global competition, in a knowledge- based economy, a great education is more important than ever. a higher education is the single best investment you can make in your future. and i'm proud of all the students who are making that investment.
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and that's not just me saying it. look, right now, the unemployment rate for americans with at least a college degree is about 1/3 lower than the national average. the incomes of folks who have at least a college degree are more than twice those of americans without a high school diploma. so more than ever before, some form of higher education is the surest path into the middle class. but what i want to talk about today is what's become a barrier and a burden for too many american families, and that is the soaring cost of higher education. this is something that everybody
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knows you need -- a college education. on the other hand, college has never been more expensive. over the past three decades, the average tuition at a public four-year college has gone up by more than 250% -- 250%. now, a typical family's income has only gone up 16%. so think about that -- tuition has gone up 250%, income gone up 16%. that's a big gap. now, it's true that a lot of universities have tried to provide financial aid and work- study programs. and so not every student -- in fact, most students are probably not paying the sticker price of tuition. we understand that. but what we also understand is that if it's going up 250% and
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your incomes are only going up 16%, at some point, families are having to make up some of the difference, or students are having to make up some of the difference with debt. and meanwhile, over the past few years, states have been cutting back on their higher education budgets. new york has done better than a lot of states, but the fact is that we've been spending more money on prisons, less money on college. and meanwhile, not enough colleges have been working to figure out how do we control costs, how do we cut back on costs. so all this sticks it to students, sticks it to families, but also, taxpayers end up paying a bigger price. the average student who borrows for college now graduates owing more than $26,000.
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some owe a lot more than that. and i've heard from a lot of these young people who are frustrated that they've done everything they're supposed to do -- got good grades in high school, applied to college, did well in school -- but now they come out, they've got this crushing debt that's crippling their sense of self-reliance and their dreams. it becomes hard to start a family and buy a home if you're servicing $1,000 worth of debt every month. it becomes harder to start a business if you are servicing $1,000 worth of debt every month, right? and meanwhile, parents, you're having to make sacrifices, which means you may be dipping into savings that should be going to your retirement to pay for your
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son or daughter's -- or to help pay for your son or daughter's education. so at a time when a higher education has never been more important or more expensive, too many students are facing a choice that they should never have to make -- either they say no to college and pay the price for not getting a degree -- and that's a price that lasts a lifetime -- or you do what it takes to go to college, but then you run the risk that you won't be able to pay it off because you've got so much debt. now, that's a choice we shouldn't accept. and, by the way, that's a choice that previous generations didn't have to accept. this is a country that early on made a commitment to put a good education within the reach of all who are willing to work for it, and we were ahead of the curve compared to other countries when it came to helping young people go to school.
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the folks in buffalo understand this. mayor brown was talking about the city of buffalo and the great work that is being done through the program called say yes, to make sure that no child in buffalo has to miss out on a college education because they can't pay for it. but even though there's a great program in this city, in a lot of places that program doesn't exist. but a generation ago, two generations ago, we made a bigger commitment. this is the country that gave my grandfather the chance to go to college on the gi bill after he came back from world war ii. this is the country that helped my mother get through school while raising two kids. michelle and i, we're only where we are today because scholarships and student loans
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gave us a shot at a great education. and we know a little bit about trying to pay back student loans, too, because we didn't come from a wealthy family. so we each graduated from college and law school with a mountain of debt. and even though we got good jobs, we barely finished paying it off just before i was elected to the u.s. senate. right? i mean, i was in my 40's when we finished paying off our debt. and we should have been saving for malia and sasha by that time. but we were still paying off what we had gotten -- and we were luckier because most of the debt was from law school. our undergraduate debt was not as great because tuition had not started shooting up as high. so the bottom line is this -- we've got a crisis in terms of college affordability and student debt.
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and over the past four years, what we've tried to do is to take some steps to make college more affordable. so we enacted historic reforms to the student loan system, so taxpayer dollars stop padding the pockets of big banks and instead help more kids afford college. because what was happening was the old system, the student loan programs were going through banks. they didn't have any risk because the federal government guaranteed the loans, but they were still taking billions of dollars out of the program. we said, well, let's just give the loans directly to the students and we can put more money to helping students. then we set up a consumer watchdog. and that consumer watchdog is already helping students and families navigate the financial options that are out there to pay for college without getting ripped off by shady lenders. and we're providing more tools and resources for students and
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families to try to finance college. and if any of you are still trying to figure out how to finance college, check it out at studentaid.gov. studentaid.gov. then, we took action to cap loan repayments at 10% of monthly income for many borrowers who are trying to responsibly manage their federal student loan debt. so overall, we've made college more affordable for millions of students and families through tax credits and grants and student loans that go farther than they did before. and then, just a few weeks ago, democrats and republicans worked together to keep student loan rates from doubling. and that saves typical undergraduates more than $1,500 for this year's loans. so that's all a good start, but it's not enough. the problem is, is that even if the federal government keeps on
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putting more and more money in the system, if the cost is going up by 250%, tax revenues aren't going up 250% -- and so some point, the government will run out of money, which means more and more costs are being loaded on to students and their families. the system's current trajectory is not sustainable. and what that means is state legislatures are going to have to step up. they can't just keep cutting support for public colleges and universities. that's just the truth. colleges are not going to be able to just keep on increasing tuition year after year, and then passing it on to students and families and taxpayers. our economy can't afford the trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt, much of which may not get repaid because students don't have the capacity
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to pay it. we can't price the middle class and everybody working to get into the middle class out of a college education. we're going to have to do things differently. we can't go about business as usual. because if we do, that will put our younger generation, our workers, our country at a competitive disadvantage for years. higher education is still the best ticket to upward mobility in america, and if we don't do something about keeping it within reach, it will create problems for economic mobility for generations to come. and that's not acceptable. so whether we're talking about a two-year program, a four-year program, a technical certificate, bottom line is higher education cannot be a luxury. it's an economic imperative. every family in america should be able to afford to get it. so that's the problem.
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now, what are we going to do about it? today, i'm proposing major new reforms that will shake up the current system, create better incentives for colleges to do more with less, and deliver better value for students and their families. and some of these reforms will require action from congress, so we're going to have to work on that. some of these changes i can make on my own. we are going to have to -- we're going to be partnering with colleges to do more to keep costs down, and we're going to work with states to make higher education a higher priority in their budgets. and one last thing -- we're going to have to ask more of students who are receiving federal aid, as well. and i've got to tell you ahead of time, these reforms won't be
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popular with everybody, especially those who are making out just fine under the current system. but my main concern is not with those institutions. my main concern is the students those institutions are there to serve -- because this country is only going to be as strong as our next generation. and i have confidence that our country's colleges and universities will step up -- just like chancellor zimpher and the folks at suny are trying to step up -- and lead the way to do the right thing for students. so let me be specific. my plan comes down to three main goals. first, we're going to start rating colleges not just by which college is the most selective, not just by which college is the most expensive, not just by which college has the nicest facilities -- you can
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get all of that on the existing rating systems. what we want to do is rate them on who's offering the best value so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck. number two, we're going to jumpstart new competition between colleges -- not just on the field or on the court, but in terms of innovation that encourages affordability, and encourages student success, and doesn't sacrifice educational quality. that's going to be the second component of it. and the third is, we're going to make sure that if you have to take on debt to earn your college degree that you have ways to manage and afford it. so let me just talk about each of these briefly. our first priority is aimed at providing better value for students -- making sure that families and taxpayers are
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getting what we pay for. today, i'm directing arne duncan, our secretary of education, to lead an effort to develop a new rating system for america's colleges before the 2015 college year. right now, private rankings like u.s. news and world report puts out each year their rankings, and it encourages a lot of colleges to focus on ways to -- how do we game the numbers, and it actually rewards them, in some cases, for raising costs. i think we should rate colleges based on opportunity. are they helping students from all kinds of backgrounds succeed and on outcomes, on their value to students and parents. so that means metrics like how much debt does the average student leave with. how easy it is to pay off? how many students graduate on time? how well do those graduates do
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in the workforce? because the answers will help parents and students figure out how much value a college truly offers. there are schools out there who are terrific values. but there are also schools out there that have higher default rates than graduation rates. and taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing students to go to schools where the kids aren't graduating. that doesn't do anybody any good. and our ratings will also measure how successful colleges are at enrolling and graduating students who are on pell grants. and it will be my firm principle that our ratings have to be carefully designed to increase, not decrease, the opportunities for higher education for students who face economic or other disadvantages. so this is going to take a little time, but we think this
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can empower students and families to make good choices. and it will give any college the chance to show that it's making serious and consistent improvement. so a college may not be where it needs to be right now on value, but they'll have time to try to get better. and we want all the stakeholders in higher education -- students, parents, businesses, college administrators, professors -- to work with secretary duncan on this process. and over the next few months, he's going to host a series of public forums around the country to make sure we get these measures right. and then, over the next few years, we're going to work with congress to use these ratings to change how we allocate federal aid for colleges. we are going to deliver on a promise i made last year, which is colleges that keep their tuition down and are providing
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high-quality education are the ones that are going to see their taxpayer funding go up. it is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results and reward schools that deliver for american students and our future. and we're also going to encourage states to follow the same principle. right now, most states fund colleges based on how many students they enroll, not based on how well those students do or even if they graduate. now, some states are trying a better approach. you got tennessee, indiana, ohio they're offering more funding to colleges that do a better job of preparing students for graduation and a job. michigan is rewarding schools that keep tuition increases low. so they're changing the incentive structure. and i'm challenging all states
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to come up with new and innovative ways to fund their colleges in a way that drives better results. now, for the young people here, i just want to say that just as we're expecting more from our schools that get funding from taxpayers, we're going to have to expect more from students who get subsidies and grants from taxpayers. so we're going to make sure students who receive federal financial aid complete their courses before receiving grants for the next semester. we'll make sure to build in flexibility so we're not penalizing disadvantaged students or students who are holding down jobs to pay for school. things happen. but the bottom line is we need
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to make sure that if you're getting financial aid you're doing your part to make progress towards a degree. and, by the way, that's good for you, too, because if you take out debt and you don't get that degree, you are not going to be able to pay off that debt and you'll be in a bind. all right, second goal -- we want to encourage more -- >> we love you, obama! >> thank you. the second thing we want to do is to encourage more colleges to embrace innovative new ways to prepare our students for a 21st century economy and maintain a high level of quality without breaking the bank. so let me talk about some alternatives that are already out there. southern new hampshire university gives course credit based on how well students master the material, not just on how many hours they spend in the classroom.
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so the idea would be if you're learning the material faster, you can finish faster, which means you pay less and you save money. the university of wisconsin is getting ready to do the same thing. you've got central missouri university -- i went there, and they've partnered with local high schools and community colleges so that their students can show up at college and graduate in half the time because they're already starting to get college credits while they're in high school or while they're in a two-year college, so by the time they get to a four-year college they're saving money. universities like carnegie mellon, arizona state, they're starting to show that online learning can help students master the same material in less time and often at lower cost. georgia tech, which is a national leader in computer science, just announced it will begin offering an online
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master's degree in computer science at a fraction of the cost of a traditional class, but it's just as rigorous and it's producing engineers who are just as good. so a lot of other schools are experimenting with these ideas to keep tuition down. they've got other ways to help students graduate in less time, at less cost, while still maintaining high quality. the point is it's possible. and it's time for more colleges to step up with even better ways to do it. and we're going to provide additional assistance to states and universities that are coming up with good ideas. third thing, even as we work to bring down costs for current and future students, we've got to offer students who already have debt the chance to actually repay it.
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nobody wants to take on debt -- especially after what we've seen and families have gone through during this financial crisis. but taking on debt in order to earn a college education has always been viewed as something that will pay off over time. we've got to make sure, though, that it's manageable. as i said before, even with good jobs, it took michelle and me a long time to pay off our student loans -- while we should have been saving for malia and sasha's college educations, we were still paying off our own. so we know how important it is to make sure debt is manageable, so that it doesn't keep you from taking a job that you really care about, or getting married, or buying that first home. there are some folks who have been talking out there recently about whether the federal student loan program should make or cost the government money. here's the bottom line -- government shouldn't see student loans as a way to make money. it should be a way to help students.
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so we need to ask ourselves, how much does a federal student loan cost students? how can we help students manage those costs better? our national mission is not to profit off student loans. our national mission must be to profit off having the best- educated workforce in the world. that should be our focus. so, as i mentioned a little bit earlier, two years ago, i capped loan repayments at 10% of a student's post-college income. we called it pay as you earn. and it, along with some other income-driven repayment plans, have helped more than 2.5 million students so far. but there are two obstacles that are preventing more students from taking advantage of it. one is that too many current and former students aren't eligible, which means we've got to get
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congress to open up the program for more students. and we're going to be pushing them to do that. the other obstacle is that a lot of students don't even know they're eligible for the program. so starting this year, we're going to launch a campaign to help more borrowers learn about their repayment options and we'll help more student borrowers enroll in pay-as-you- earn. so if you went to college, you took out debt, you want to be a teacher, and starting salary for a teacher is, let's say, $35,000, well, only 10% of that amount is what your loan repayment is. now, if you're making more money, you should be paying more back. but that way, everybody has a chance to go to college, everybody has a chance to pursue their dreams. and that program is already in place. we want more students to take advantage of it. we're really going to be advertising it heavily.
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now, if we move forward on these three fronts -- increasing value, encouraging innovation, helping people responsibly manage their debt -- i guarantee you we will help more students afford college. we'll help more students graduate from college. we'll help more students get rid of that debt so they can a good start in their careers. but it's going to take a lot of hard work. the good news is, from what i hear, folks in buffalo know something about hard work. folks in america know something about hard work. and we've come a long way together these past four years. we're going to keep moving forward on this issue and on every other issue that's going to help make sure that we continue to have the strongest, most thriving middle class in the world. we're going to keep pushing to build a better bargain for everybody in this country who works hard, and everybody who's trying to get into that middle class.
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and we're going to keep fighting to make sure that this remains a country where, if you work hard and study hard and are responsible, you are rewarded, so that no matter what you look like and where you come from, what your last name is, here in america you can make it if you try. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. god bless america. ♪
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>> education is also the top button of today's c-span town hall. we invite you to join the
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conversation by phone, facebook, and twitter. that gets underway this evening eastern. >> tonight -- was soident cleveland popular. they wanted a piece of frances for themselves. pictures of the first lady became extremely popular. you can purchase your own toture of ms. cleveland have in your home. while we have grover cleveland running, we also have mrs. cleveland running for first lady. >> >> let's begin with a well-known
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american novelist. mr. baldwin, what brought you to the march on washington? >> i could say, the fact i was a negro in this country. more concretely, i fell there was no reason for me not to be is below -- the most loaded demonstration to free americans that has ever happened in this country. like most americans, i myported my -- showed support of civil rights by talking about at parties. what many americans this summer, i could no longer play only lip was so to a cause that urgently right and in a time that is so urgently now. >> the 50th anniversary of the march on washington with historic and contemporary roundtable discussions. a visit to the national portrait
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gallery. a theater performance on the 1960 possible rights movement. firsthand accounts of the day -- 1960's rights movement. firsthand accounts of the day. we had been planning live coverage of a discussion reflecting on the 1963 march on washington and its upcoming 50th anniversary. it is getting under way later than expected. about 7:30 eastern time. we are planning to cover it and bring it to you later in our schedule. right now were going to the women.l council of negro
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>> we are going live in one minute. one minute. we are live now. i know we are enjoying our lunch. hello. much.you so thank you all so much. can we give the first segment of --en [applause] two, we're about to
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start, which will be a conversation with women leaders of the movement. i will let our moderator go deeper. that is the title. we do have a representative of the obama administration with us. he's no stranger to the black women's roundtable. we have the director of faith- based and neighborhood partnerships with the department of education. to make brief remarks from the obama administration. [applause] good afternoon, everyone -- >> good afternoon, everyone. it is an an honor to be with you today.
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dr. barbara william skinner was doing the prayers. i heard mostly everything, including the music today. i'm especially appreciative we the legacy recognize of dr. dorothy. if you know anything about me, you know she was the person who most inspired me in the work of community service outside of my me to knowyou helped that anything we set our minds to together can be done. the doctor was about relationship building. this movement work, if you're not in relationships with people, you cannot be successful. to bring you greetings on behalf of the president of the united states of america, who values the relationship he has with all of us. thank you for the continuing support, the work, the things we can say and do on the ground
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that he cannot say and do from 1600. our voice has to amplify the voices we want to hear from him. our voices have to lift up the issues that we think are important. our walk has to demonstrate that we believe this can be a better and stronger world, where everybody feels that they are equal and have access to education and jobs and freedom. as we talk about freedom and justice, if we are free to sit on the front of the bus, as the president has said, if we are free to go to any school, if we're free to do all of these things that we have been fighting for with our ancestors and yet our children cannot read and cannot write, we are not yet free. as a representative of the u.s. department of education, i urge help us make everyone recognize education as a civil rights issue of our time.
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children should not be dictated by where they live unto the quality of education they receive. if we start to educate our children in free public education at an earlier age, at old -- three and four years so they don't have an achievement gap, the world will be better for it. we will be more competitive in the global society. there's a lot of bad news out there. being ordained clergy, i often say to my colleagues at the department, my job is to bring good news. there is some good news. our dropout rate is horrible. thatnt you to know that dropout rate is decreasing. there are more and more african american young people graduating from high school. there are more and more young people who are finishing and going on to higher levels of
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education. the numbers are still not ideal, but there is improvement. as many of my sisters have said today, it is out of our relationship of encouraging one another, being a voice for the fact that education is the key to success in our nation that helps inspire young people who may not have seen education as something that they aspire to. while we say that the president pulpit,greatest bully he has the greatest public platform from which to encourage us to do things that make us greater as a nation. he has to have all of us who amplify the voice that education is a civil right, that we are not free unless everyone is free, that our children need to be inspired to go to greatness -- as we connect with each other, the movement does continue. i'm thankful to hear these younger women say they don't
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want us to pass the torch. they will do their own torch. lift your voice on behalf of all of our children, and encourage america in the direction it needs to go. i will leave you with this. the doctor used to like me very -- used to like to hear me say, right hand is being held by somebody who knows more than i, and i'm learning. my left hand is being held by somebody who knows less than i, and i'm teaching. but both of my hands need and thus to be held for me to be all that i can be. won't you hold somebody's hand as we continue the march for freedom and justice and jobs, and education for all of america's children? thank you so very much. [applause] >> thank you. i would like to acknowledge our host organization.
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the collaboration, partnership and sisterhood. action network. cohost. our lead sponsor, verizon. comcast, nbc universal. aft. congressional black caucus foundation. i'm going to do this very quickly. vote, coalition of labor costco, emerald cities, family values at work, international black women's public policy institute. lawyers committee for civil rights under law. league of women voters. marriott. the national coalition on immigrant women's writes. -- rights.
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national council of negro women. national latino institute -- latina institute for public health. rainbow push coalition. wca -- naacp.naacpy ywca usa. about moving forward, oracle -- equal opportunity for all. just a journalist. every now and then, we get to hang out with some brothers. she does some phenomenal things in the public policy sector. i want her to know that we
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appreciate her. i also want to make sure i knowledge sister williams, who was on her way. here over the course of the days. the 50th is seven days, not one day. it started yesterday, and will go through august 28. we may have one other special guest who will come. we will let you know if that person makes it. a round of sisterly applause, and let her know that you really mean it. she responded that the last- minute. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i'm honored to be here. i'm honored to fill in for my colleague, joy read from -- joy reed from msnbc.
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i'm going to introduce the panel and then pose a general question about where i see we are in the present, and ask for their thoughts about that. are respondents will pose questions or statements to our panelists to keep the conversation going. i will read this in the order it is on my sheet of paper. it is not the order you are seated in. of now.neill, president [listing names] the president of the majority feminist foundation. president, emerald city. are respondents. associate director of government relations and public affairs, national latina institute for reproductive health. pacificne chen, asian-
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islander vote. felicia davis, director of building green,erty. dr. avis jones to weaver. deweaver. [applause] in this panel, we want to talk about the present. o sethe stage for the t in terms of some of the things i think we are with that i don't think we would have expected to be dealing with at this point. i want to get your thoughts with regards to public policy and activation and grassroots, how we address these issues. executives, we have more women in congress, in the house and senate than ever. we have women governors. we have had a viable woman candidate for presidency. we will again. women leadersible all across our country doing all kinds of wonderful things.
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the women's vote is a vote that made the difference for barack obama, in 2008 and 2012. [applause] it was black women. we pushed them over the top. we are such a critical part of this economy. we are a critical part of the political process. if you look at what has been happening and you listen to the level of conversation, you would think we had slid back almost 100 years. the type of conversation being had about women and our basic fundamental rights, and basic humanity and whether or not you trust us -- how can you tell me to you trust me to run a company if you don't trust me to make medical decisions for myself? [applause] that is the level of conversation. we have some mail white -- male sonalitv perr
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women,ting it is and working women are the reason for the downfall of our society. how can that be, when we are a greater percentage of the population, and we are so critical and fundamental to the economy and to the civic life of this country? how did we get here, and how do we make sure that as women we vote to our numbers, but leverage our power in the present so in the future when we look back in 50 years, we're having a different conversation than the one we are today were so many of our fundamental rights as women are under siege in ways we have not seen literally in 100 years. i'm going to start with you, ellie. >> ok. a --l know that we are in i think i will stand up. short.try to make this
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i want all of my colleagues to be able to speak. we don't have very much time. we all know we are in the middle of a big backlash to both women's rights and civil rights. we are in this together. one of the ways you can see how much we are in it together is what they are trying to do to take away our vote. thewomen's vote and african-american vote made a difference. and young people's votes made a difference. that is why you are seeing the southern strategy unfolding, where they are trying to take of women,oting rights african-americans, and students by these id laws that particularly affect our populations. as we are watching that happening, there is the attack on public education, on the teachers. women are the biggest
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components. economic rights, pension plans. being human services taken away. a tax on food stamps, when 20% of our children of this nation do not have enough to eat. all of this is outrageous. thethen you put onto it attacks on family planning, reproductive health, abortion access. it is a big picture. we are not just going to sit there and take that. that's why there is an absolute backlash from us. in northoral mondays carolina. you see wendy davis and the filibuster in texas. and you're having a big rally. -- for reproductive rights, october 2. we're going to fight back. we are not going to give up the ground we have right now.
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we must go forward. i keep saying this in my head. justice delayed is justice denied. we cannot lose a generation to the tea party years -- partiers. [applause] >> that is certainly a difficult act to follow. i'm truly delighted to be here on behalf of the wyca of the u.s. i am proud to say that dr. dorothy was a leader in our movement for over 30 years. she was the director of our center for racial justice. for more than 150 years, the ywca has been dedicated to eliminating racism and empowering women. we were one of the first institutions to defy accepted social opinions on race. when you think about the present, as i was sitting at my
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chair, i started to get a little bit depressed. thinking, clearly, the death of trayvon martin and the acquittal of his killer, the voting rights act assault, the healthcare disparity, the achievement gap, the education gap, lack of pay equity, lack of reproductive rights -- 50 years since the march on washington. we are still fighting for the same things. legal equality, african-americans and women, particularly, continue to face a wide array of systemic barriers that are impediments to our equality and equal opportunities. as i was getting depressed, i looked up and i saw the photo on the wall here. it has a quote on the bottom. it says, my best accomplishment is that i started on a journey and i'm still on it.
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that is from dorothy. that gave me incredible hope. i began to think, we are still fighting 50 years later, but what would have happened had we not been fighting for these rights. that is critically important as we think about the next step. it is daunting and depressing and sad. there are economic arguments that make it clear that women make a difference. i was reading an article written by one of our former leaders. she talked about how she was summoned to the white house, along with 70 other women from the white house, to talk about civil rights act before the march on washington. one of the things she said was who one of the assistants was the assistant secretary of labor, esther patterson, actually suggested to president kennedy that he really wanted to get things done, he needed to
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call on the women. he said, we need to get this done. that's why they were brought to the white house. i say to all of you and to everyone in this room, we are going to have to be the ones to get it done. we cannot get depressed, we cannot stop, we cannot stop the fight. imagine where we would be had we stopped fighting many years ago. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. sorry. we are powerful women in this room. [laughter] i'm the president of the national organization for women. my name is terry o'neill. [applause] got active politically not until the 1990's.
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to be teaching in louisiana at the time. to beduke -- happened teaching in louisiana at the time. david duke nearly became governor of our state. i decided i needed to get politically active to keep the kkk from taking over the state i live in. i became active with the national organization for women because of n.o.w.'s commitment to the intersection of racism, able-ism, homophobia, all of the ism's. they are intertwined. we have been talking to colleagues in the weeks and days leading up to this very luncheon. one of the things we talked of thes the four themes 50th anniversary march on washington. that would be freedom and jobs and peace and social justice. when you look at those issues
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and ask yourself, what is the impact on women of those things -- then you ask yourself, what is the impact on various communities of women? what is the impact on african- american women? what is the impact on immigrant women? what about latinas, and younger women, and older women? long time ago, a legal scholar she hadrothy roberts -- that phrase. ask the woman question. any issue you are talking about, ask the woman question. answers, youd seek get an amazing insight into what is really going on in the present today as we celebrate the legacy of the civil rights movement and women's movement and the lesbian-day-bisexual- transgender movement.
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transgenderxual- movement. women make up the majority share of public sector employment. what is happening in states and counties around the country, and with sequestration happening right here in the federal government, women are being laid off in disproportionately large numbers. women don't have as much of a becauseto fall back on women work a lifetime at unequal pay. $.77 to the dollar, on average. $.69 to the dollar for african-american women, and $.59 to the dollar for latinas. how are you going to save for a rainy day on cystine nine --$.59 to the dollar? at that rate, it's raining already. two thirds of minimum-wage workers in this country are women.
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when we call for a living wage, we need to understand we are calling for a living wage for our sisters who have not had a fair raise in decades. [applause] when we call for affordable, quality education, we need to remember this too. disproportionately, it is the women who need a four your college education. over our lifetime, you will get a man who has a high school education compared with the lifetime earnings of a woman with a four year college education, they are about even. who is it that is paying more for college education just to get that decent job? women. who are the women who are being targeted for abusive student loan programs? disproportionately women. when you ask the woman question, you notice these things.
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more than half of women are the sole support of their family in this country today or an essential part of the family's economy. if she gets laid off, they are not paying the mortgage within a month or two. let me say one more thing about the war on women. it is real. but we have won the war of ideas about women. wagedar on women is being by a very thin slice of ultra- , ultra- ultra-resourced nutbar, right wing ideologues -- [applause] oft the vast majority people, men and women in this country do not agree with. we believe that a rape victim should have access to emergency contraception. but these guys don't. mention that one in three
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women will have an abortion by the age of 45. it is a common and necessary aspect of our reproductive healthcare. not one of these extremist legislators is just trying to stop abortion. they're trying to shut down the clinics that provide the entire range of healthcare services. we are going to win this. now we have to go out and win some elections. we need a voting rights constitutional amendment for the john roberts and his pals in the supreme court -- so the john roberts and his pals in the supreme court cannot take it away from us. [applause] >> are these women fired up>'are you fired up -- up? are you fired up? i'm denise fairchild, with the emerald city collaborative. environmental justice and
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democracy. i have been stuck on the bus since 1968. was the bust on that went to memphis, tennessee. --ent to fisk and diversity university to finish martin luther king's mission. , atied for us in memphis 67, fighting for economic justice. he died in memphis, organizing for the memphis sanitation workers who were struggling for the right to collective bargaining, who struggled for the right for workplace safety. if you are member the sign they raced up -- remember the sign they raised up, i am a man. i'm here to say that if we went to memphis to commemorate his , but also to continue to
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start the struggle for economic justice. i been stuck there ever since. we have so much unfinished business. we are even going backwards. for thetill fighting right for workers to have a voice. collective bargaining is being lost all across the u.s. we as a labor movement have lost our ability to have livable wages. women as heads of households, we need to have livable wages. we need health benefits. toneed retirement benefits protect and support our families. we are making less today than we made in 1960. when you consider that cost of living, we are earning less. we lose collective bargaining. we are losing income.
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we have no ability to protect our home. we had issues of foreclosure. particularlyes, someone like myself -- i raised my family and work in south los angeles. we had economic justice issues in communities of color that we have to fix. there's no reason in the world that i should go buy baby food in my community and have to pay $.10 more a jerk. -- a jar. i used to say, why am i paying more for food? why are we paying more for car insurance? justo we pay more for about anything, depending on what zip code we live in? our homes are toxic. lead, asbestos. we live in toxic homes, we live in toxic communities. we have unprecedented levels of
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asthma with our children and our families because of the problems of air pollution. when do we get to clean up our homes? when do we get to have economic justice? there is a couple of answers. our right to use our economic power. we used to have the right of boycotts. we used to use boycotts to make a difference. political rights and policies are good, but what america listens to is where money is spent and where it is not spent. if there is anything we should learn from the civil rights movement, with the economic boycott, is that we have power. if we have a dime in our pockets, we have power as to where we spend a dime. it's time for us to rebuild and reclaim our communities. it's time for us to organize ourselves and reclaim our civic responsibility.
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i believe we can create jobs, jobs, by, family wage cleaning up 100 years' worth of contamination, corruption, and pollution in our communities. so we have sustainable development, greener cities as a mantra. let's clean up our cities and create economic justice and get lynically engaged -- civical -- civicly engaged. thank you. [applause] >> i'm going to start with you, avis. mic's so wee table don't have the time of getting up and down. heard that were so important, this idea of a rights to boycott and protest and make our voices heard.
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i think we forget sometimes, that is important because that frightens politicians. it frightens them into thinking, i might be held accountable for my actions. if we don't vote, we have got to at least make sure we have got to vote. we have also got to make sure likeour voices are heard wendy davis. i'm going to start with you, avis. >> i want to thank each and every of our presenters. you have done an excellent job. .ou have done an excellent job a couple of things really stood out to me, particularly the point made around the fact that here we are, 50 years later. though we do have right on our side, we have much of the public on our site if you look at the polling data.
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it is interesting that a very tyrannical minority seems to be very effective at pushing through laws that are ripping through our ability to represent ourselves. if you look at the voting rights act after the supreme court, look what happened in texas and north carolina. i just got a "political" alert that attorney general holder is now suing the state of texas for their voter id law. [applause] let's give him a round of applause. this is a man who takes seriously the namesake of his department. given the power of this a small but vocal minority, what can we do now in terms of being more proactive to move forward in an agenda in a proactive way rather than a reactive way that
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ultimately seems to be one step behind the trend in terms of responding to battles after we have already lost them? what can we do now to be more proactive, more assertive, and make sure that our reproductive rights are protected and are voting rights are protected and our economic rights are respected? what can we do moving forward to be more proactive? [inaudible] >> i think that we have had a habit on relying on national legislation because it makes sense. you think congressional legislation would apply to everywhere. we have got to get active in the states to this thing in ohio on october 2 -- states. this thing in ohio on october 2 is big.
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the people who showed up in texas were all from there. the people who showed up in virginia to protest the mandatory ultrasound bill last year, that was all those people in virginia the got national attention. that is what we have to do. that is where n.o.w. is organizing. >> that is an important point. these things are generated out of the states. there are five women governors. there are only five women governors in the u.s. we have got to begin to elect women governors. [applause] there are a little over a thousand women mayors across the country. i think this is the largest number of women in congress, this 113th congress. it is at the state and local levels where the action is. they do so much. and thank you all for your
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remarks and for allowing me to be here today. i work with the national latina institute for reproductive health, the only organization that is mobilizing latinas across the country for reproductive justice, health equity and immigrant rights. [applause] thank you. to borrow a phrase, these women don't live single issue lives. they spirits high rates of uninsurance, anti-lgbt violence, deportation. experience high rates of uninsurance, anti-lgbt violence, deportation. i think often we know by heart and instinct had to stand in solidarity, but we don't always know how to act in solidarity. i would love to hear about an example of a specific time when you were able to act in solidarity across movements and issues.
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while we are increasingly acting in solidarity, this event is cohosted by a women's organization. i personally think people do not realize how often the national organizations are here, fighting together, and in the states. not just here. we have tables in the states of our organizations. we are there fighting. there's no question. when we do the best is when we are on the proactive side. when they are responding to our legislation. i think we need model legislation. this stuff is all coming out of one organization. it is not local. we need our think tanks to do it better.
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we don't have to hide. they are doing their things by tricky maneuvers. these events are happening in enter -- extra legislative sessions. i think we should be using referendums more. when we are defeating their bad referendums, we are also passing hours and working together. labor, civil rights, women's writes, a whole host of organizations. the environmental groups. we act the best when we are working together. [applause] >> hi. thank you so much. i am with the asian and pacific islander vote. we are focused on increasing voter participation in the api community. community. even in issues where we are
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battling voter rights issues, and immigration being stalled -- especially as women, we are really focused on how immigration laws are changing in regards to family reunification. that is an important issue for families. at the same time, on the local level with our partners, they find that even though they want to be supportive of the multi- issues we are talking about, their capacity is very low. how do we go about expanding our base? the asianen just american, pacific islander community. participationf i'm concerned about. arene of the things we fighting for very heavily -- we have a path to immigration reform. [applause]
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we've got to do that. women will continue to be hiding as long as that legislation is not passed. it's something that is a moral issue, to be honest. many of the people impacted our women and families. getting thatng on legislation passed by any means necessary. that is what we are doing at the ywca. that is the first step in assisting the women you are speaking about. >> i'm a major fan of social media and reaching out that way. i think it is no substitute for face-to-face convening. you do both. you establish the relationship. i think you're right, it has to be intentional. immigration reform has to happen, but it needs to be amended. what is on the table is not as good for immigrant women as it needs to be. it is work focused. women are being discriminated
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against in their education and they cannot compete to get those desirable jobs. if you focus on jobs, you are reinstating discrimination against women. we need social networks. think of a family emergency that happened in your life. think about your family, your extended family that you reached out to. the current immigration law makes it harder for immigrant families to keep and extend those family networks that are there for you. those two pieces have to be changed. sittingng here and through this entire experience, a few things came to my mind that i think come together. the first is certainly the spirit of dr. height. i remember from 1985 all the way up. the last part that she does was to mentor melanie very closely.
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i remember the night the president obama was elected. a canadian journalist asked dr. height, this is so great, what do you have to say given all of your experience? quoted,ght -- height saying, there are no reserved seats. you get what you can take. you keep what you can hold onto. you don't give anything without a struggle. melanie -- she typically says when she steps onto a podium, organized. -- organize. many of you do not know to the extent that she has supported global issues -- gender issues.
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we have been all over the planet. she has supported gender, justice, and within the frame of global climate change. posed foruestion denise, my good buddy, to say, what is it that american women need to bring to this environmental movement to really said that course and agenda straight -- set that course and agenda straight? thank you. >> women, particularly indigenous women, are leaders in the environmental movement. we have a natural affinity to nature. we don't have two cars. we don't have vacuum cleaners. we are still using brooms are washing -- brooms. we have the power to lead on the
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question. there are not as many people of color in this environmental movement. we don't feel it as a part of us. i used to fight it. but it is very clear that katrina -- when you look at , whate weather conditions happened to communities of color there. when you look at hurricane sandy , the public housing units were the last ones to get back on the grid. absent food, water, shelter. we are at a point in time where they say emergency management used to be, how do you live two or three days without food or water? it is now up to 30 and 45 days. we have to own this as an issue as far as the quality of water that we don't have any more, the landfills we don't have any more, the are fighting in the middle east for -- fuel we are fighting in the middle east for.
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we have to be aware how this is impacting us now. now floods every two years, and it's going to get worse and impact women first and foremost. we need to be in the conversation. [applause] >> melanie will introduce a special guest. >> thank you, karen. this is a sister who doesn't need a formal introduction. she is a visionary leader. she's a spiritual leader.
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she is serious, but she has a sense of humor. king, whoer bernice is coming up to be with us, who as a vision about what we can do differently about the 50th march on washington. we have been working with her and her vision for a number of months. she had that vision long, long ago. i'm going to ask her if she could -- and hope the cameras stay with us a little longer -- to just hear from our sister leader and give her standing sister love as she tells us about her vision. i thank her for being able to come. [applause] the ceo of the king center.
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>> thank you very much for that warm welcome. my sisterthank melanie campbell for the extraordinary work she has done leading up to this important 50th anniversary celebration, call to action, and commemoration. it has been a long journey. we are here now. we praise god for that. i want to thank her especially for her vision of inserting this end of thet and -- weeklong celebration. recognizee do not yet and accept the fact that the movement in which my father led
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would not have happened, as you have heard many stories today, without women. the idea of the montgomery bus protest began with women. it was women who made it to mobilize and organize and bring the community together. respects, it all begins, as does life begins a woman's womb -- in a woman's womb. we incubate and nurture. we can never, ever forget that. we must always ensure that the story is told, and the record is accurate. about the ther movement, for the most part, in the last few years back, it was predominantly about the male leadership. we certainly applaud all of the
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wonderful leadership of all of the men who were at the head of the struggle. but going forward, we must continue to tell our stories and make sure that the story is very well balanced. , for thent to say record, i don't necessarily believe in the statement behind every man is a good woman. i affirm the statement that every good mane is an even greater woman. [applause] becauseen greater woman we often times have to make the greatest sacrifice, especially those who are wives and mothers. not only do we have to support our children, but we have to support and encourage and
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motivate the man. -- men. they get to the point that they become discouraged and want to give up. of us,stinct within all which is that nurturing instinct, helps to nurture them back to the place where they understand we cannot give up. rest if you must, but never quit. it is that energy, it is that tenacity of women that has been so essential to the struggle. that is true no matter what race, no matter what ethnicity, no matter what nation you come from. it is always women who have that undergirding power, and that greater sense of support, and oftentimes gives up even more than the men in the struggle. i believe we are equal in god's eyesight. but functionally, we have been
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so critical to every struggle. thank you for ensuring that on the front and -- oftentimes it is the peripheral. it is in the back room somewhere, on the fringes, where the story of women is told. we are beginning this in the proper way, i believe, as we move forward toward the august 28 actual day of the march on washington, where my father gave his extraordinary "i have a dream" speech. journey,tarted on this one of the things i mentioned in 1963eeting is during the -- all of us know that was a very southern movement at the time. ,t was starting in birmingham where he began to be catapulted
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to a national stage. -- it began to be catapulted to a national stage. the energy and effort was to nationalize a movement that had become so southern, to expose the injustices that existed in the south, and bring it to the surface so that we could be a better nation. what happened in 1963. believe it or not, as we sit here today, that dream that my father articulated in many respects became a nightmare shortly after. we know about the bombing that took place at the 16th street church, where those girls were killed. throughout that 1963 through 68 -- 1968 time period, it was a bumpy road. many times my father said his dream had become a nightmare.
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there is a little scripture that i love to use periodically. it says, let the sea fall into the ground. if it dies, it produces much fruit. me and my brothers and my late sister lost a father, and my mother lost her ,ifelong partner and husband the world gain so much more. even though as children we did not fully understand that, and could not understand it, as i have continued to mature in life, i have come to realize that in spite of my loss, i am humbled and appreciative and grateful to god that this world gain something as a result of the life and legacy of martin luther king, junior, and that his death is not in vain.
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1960 eight, that speech began to be catapulted all over the place. -- 1968, that speech began to be catapulted all over the place. it is the most famous speech in the entire world. [applause] it has galvanized the world. its base to so many of the longings of people all over the world -- speaks to the longings of people all over the world. people identify with it wherever they are, whatever situation that they exist in, whatever struggle they are fighting for. listen as i continued to , three kind of themes come out. i wanted to push them forth as we commemorate and call to action the nation and the world. that is, the theme of freedom
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from the 1963 march contacting -- connecting to today. when we look at what is happening in egypt, and our hearts go out to our brothers and sisters in that country, our heart continues to go out to our young brothers that are in chicago, and so many places -- baltimore, allover this nation -- that are losing their lives in a senseless fashion. our heart goes out to individuals still trapped in oppressive situations and violent circumstances. that word, freedom, is a cry of the human race. there is only one race. we talk about all these different races. day, it is thehe human race. we have to win this race together, and we're going to continue to struggle. he spoke to the freedom to prosper in life, to peacefully coexist, and the freedom to participate in government.
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not justward, calling this nation to action, but calling the world to action. still things that threaten us as a human race, that threaten the integrity of our humanity. this 50th anniversary is not an accident. i believe it is divine. divinely ordered. it happened at the right time. it is no accident that there is a convergence of so many different things happening in 2013. toilar, somewhat, in respect 1963. we have fallen so much into deep sleep. there is a point in your physical life that if you go too deep into sleep, you probably will not return to life. we had to be jolted and awakened by some of these things. thisgeneration --
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generation has unfortunately gotten very comfortable and negligent to the struggle. my mother said, struggle is a never ending process. freedom is never really won. you win it in every generation. though we may want to think there is such a thing as a rival there is not a rival. we will forever be like the kids in the movie. are we there yet? [applause] will be sayingn that, and tell the fulfillment of time when we to that place of until theerfection -- fulfillment of time when we get to that place of ultimate perfection. we thank god for this moment, and that we are here. we thank god that we live in this time, and have an aheadunity to forge forth
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, and also have an opportunity to redo some things. some things have to be redone. wenow our heart breaks when think about what happened with the voting rights act. torecent years, i have tried turn my energy towards a more positive direction as opposed to always seeing things as a setback or, we are in trouble, or whatever. if you consume that too much, it will overtake you and zap you of the energy and vigor that you need to continue to fight. i said, it is disappointing. 's a set up. is not a setbac it's an opportunity for people to reconnect, and people to really rise up so that the people can begin to be who we were destined to be. i don't care what happens.
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it is still, we the people. that's the message that came from dr. king in 1968. his last words were, we have got some difficult days ahead. but it doesn't matter now, because i've been to the mountaintop. longevity has its place, but i just want to do god's will. he has allowed me to go up to the mountaintop. i have looked over and seen the promised land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. then we fast-forward. regardless of the race and and presiden barack obama, senator obama at the time, said, yes, we can. and so this message is, it is about week, the people, not about a party, a particular individual, but a collective.
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the collective has always been the force that has brought about the change in our world. we can never forget that. too many times, we gave our strength and power and direction and vision over to systems and parties. it is time for the people to -- have aly pat voice just like in the 1960's. that was a people movement. [applause] and so we go forward in that strength and power because there are those looking at us and they are looking for us to continue to stand strong with the integrity of our gender as we move forward to continue to for future generations. thank you, again, melanie and all these extraordinary women and leaders who have shared today. as we continue into the rest of
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.he week, we are just excited in 1960 three, there was no president at the lincoln memorial. the president was preparing to send the scan in case there was trouble. the city shut down. but this time, in 2013, the city is not shut down. there wasdown because a fear. not only the president, but the presidents to be a part of this commemoration. [applause] this is important to note that yes, we still have some difficult days ahead, but we must acknowledge the fact that we have come a long way, baby. god bless you. [applause]
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>> thank you. two. day seven days. thank you very much. wrap upe we have to segment to -- two. you can spend 20 more minutes with us. the women who have been on the call for the last few weeks, trying to prepare for just a short segment, to really do more we can start brewing
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unified policy agenda. it is really about the works. will build on what happened years later. what would this look like 50 years from now? we want to say it is about future generations and having young ladies in the role and chew -- and to share a light. someone i missed i did not know was in the room, also a part. she is doing great work. over there. what we are going to do is say, .hank you thank you for that powerful segment, and then we are going to prepare. need to take a quick
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stretch, not break. this concludes segment to and we thank you for those tuning in. strategy for segment three. ok. [applause] [indistinct conversations]
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[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] 25 minutes, c-n span live hall. the focus on education, including the cost of college, the student loan program, and the value of education. you can join the conversation by phone, facebook, and twitter. that is coming up at the bottom of the hour, 7:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. tonight, on c-span's encore presentation of first ladies -- >> she is so popular, people are imitating her clothes and hairstyle. really, they want a piece of france's for themselves. we always thought we owned the first lady, that she was someone we know. the pictures of the first lady became extremely popular. -- purchaseh or your own picture of her in your home. grover cleveland running for
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president, we also have mrs. cleveland running for first lady. >> the encore presentation of our original series, "first ladies," continues tonight at on c-span.astern >> on tomorrow's "washington journal," marilyn thompson. then, executive director federal funds information for states will focus on what will happen to state state funding if congress does not reach a budget deal. economics councilman reporter for wall street journal will take your questions about the labor department's later regional -- latest regional jobs summary. the employment rate went up in 28 states and declined in eight states. live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern.
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secretary sibelius spoke earlier today. she said hispanics are some of the highest rate of uninsured in -- among ethnic groups. this part is about 20 minutes. >> i get the great honor and pleasure of welcoming again back to philadelphia -- i would like to say and i think there's not much dispute about it, that maybe other than washington, d.c., and her home city, i am not sure that secretary sebelius has been in any other city more than philadelphia. i will say and she will not dispute it, and that is the way it will be. [laughter] please welcome the secretary back to philadelphia. secretary sebelius, thank you, very, very much. and specifically, this is her second visit to philadelphia on the issue of the affordable care act, in particular. as you know, we across the country are getting ready for
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health exchanges authorized under the affordable care act, and also affectionately known and positively known as obamacare, because this is one of the signature items that president obama talked about, worked on, and many have discussed this, he actually got it passed, and we want to thank president barack obama for his tremendous effort in the affordable care act. and of course along with that act we expect to begin enrolling people this october. secretary sebelius' visit and the work she's has been doing across the country are very important to guard the affordable care act, and it is critical for philadelphians in particular and their health. let me share some stats with you. 53% of the patients in philadelphia health clinics are
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uninsured, and many live below the poverty line, and that is also pertaining to our children in the city as well. unfortunately, pennsylvania has refused to expand medicaid, leaving many of our fellow citizens ineligible. that means over 100,000 philadelphians who are entitled to health care under the new law will remain uninsured. that is a disgrace in the city and across the commonwealth of pennsylvania. and somehow, some way, our neighbors across the river in new jersey and delaware and maryland have expanded medicaid for their citizens, but somehow in pennsylvania and for the city of philadelphia, the birthplace of liberty, we do not have the same opportunity here. other states across the country with republican governments have decided to expand medicaid
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because they know is process will bring federal dollars into their states. yet, unfortunately, the governor and our general assembly will not be swayed to help many vulnerable pennsylvanians and philadelphians. as a result, our state is losing out on millions of dollars of federal funding that could be used to improve the health care right here in philadelphia and
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across the commonwealth of pennsylvania. this must change. there's no reason not to expand medicaid in pennsylvania and all of us need to be talking to our members of congress about this issue. looking out for philadelphians, pennsylvanians, is the job of every official in this commonwealth, and access to affordable health care is our right here in pennsylvania. [applause] our city's public health team has been working hard to make philadelphia ready for open enrollment starting october 1. there are a few details. we have a reform link on the city's health department website. you can check it out at www.phila.gov/health/. everybody got that? it is also on the home page. we have benefits counselors in our centers already, but we are working to train them to help philadelphians get ready for exchange enrollment. we are working to train the various home health visitors in
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the city about enrollment and to give them information about exchanges to help connect their home health patients to insurance and we will be coordinating with the new navigators once it is up and running. i want to point out that critics are not eligible for navigator funding, but the city of philadelphia, we are putting our own resources into getting her patients connected to those navigators. our administration is preparing for october 1. we know open enrollment will benefit millions of americans who deserve affordable health care. president obama and secretary sebelius are fighting a tough battle, but it is the right battle, and ultimately americans will be the winners. congress has tried to repeal the affordable care act about 38 times -- 40. that is also a disgrace. maybe they should be working on voting to put more americans to work and passing the make america work act. maybe they should spend that
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time voting to increase funding for the cdbg program, to invest in infrastructure, maybe they should do their jobs so many philadelphians and pennsylvanians and americans can get a job. they have jobs. they have to have health care. they need to stop wasting their time and our time on these useless and endless fights about the affordable care act. it is the law, it was passed, we won that fight, it is over. move on to something else. i want to thank president obama and secretary sebelius for their great leadership on this issue and many others. i want to thank all our local
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partners and all of you here today. the affordable care act is here. we need to utilize it and make sure americans are getting the health care that they deserve. thanks a lot.[applause] you saw that, right? ladies and gentlemen, the great secretary of the department of health and human services for the united states of america, secretary kathleen sebelius. >> it sounds like the mayor is fired up and ready to go.
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i like that attitude. thank you to cynthia and a great team here for not only having us here today and hosting this important community discussion, but also for being a great champion for coverage. i know the outreach that is going to go on here throughout the community, thanks to this organization, is huge. i have not gotten the keys to the city yet, but i am waiting i want to thank the mayor for for that.[laughter] welcoming me back to philadelphia. it is great to be here. great to have a chance to visit with all of you once again. part of what we are focused on around the country is making sure that latinos have a chance to reach their full potential in this country, as huge contributors to that adversity
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and a broad richness of the united states. the latino population has about 10.2 million nationally eligible and uninsured residents here across the country. it is one of the highest uninsured populations in america, so outreach into the community to talk about what is available and what is coming is hugely important. uninsurance is not just that you have not bought a product of late. it is a public health crisis. we know that people live sicker and die sooner without health insurance. there is a direct correlation. we know that workers are less productive, that kids are less
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successful in school, that families have a more difficult time taking care of their own businesses. health insurance is really about quality of life and about the ability for each and every person to have not only the security that they will not lose everything if they get sick, but it is about peace of mind, peace of health, taking care of our families, contributing to our community. that is why the full implementation of the affordable care act is so critically important. let me give you a little snapshot. the law is about a portion of the population who is uninsured
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or underinsured or in and out of the marketplace. let's talk about the 85%, the other people. most people have coverage, coverage that is relatively affordable, and it does a good job on behalf of themselves and their families, and all that has happened with that coverage is it has gotten stronger, thanks to the health care law. people now have preventive services as part of their plan without co-pays and co- insurance, everything from cancer screenings to children's immunizations have to be covered. everyone will have an
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opportunity to make sure that if you are under 26 you can stay on your parents' plan. we have about 4 million young latino adults not having full coverage. we note small business owners are already benefiting from tax credit so they can provide coverage to their employees, and those tax credits will increase. we have a situation where people do not have to worry about being in the middle of a treatment and running out of coverage, which happens to individuals all the time because there are no lifetime limits that can be imposed. next year there will be an out- of-pocket limit year to year, so people will not be even stuck with bills they cannot pay. those things have already gone to be in place since the president signed the law in 2010.
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the last piece of implementation is about to happen. starting october 1 out this year, as the mayor has already said, for about 15% of americans do not have health coverage, they will have new opportunities. they will have a new marketplace available to them, and because they do not have an employer paying a share of the coverage, they have health care from the federal government. about 92% across the country of people across the country and pennsylvania who do not have it coverage at all or who have unaffordable coverage or have some financial help paying for that coverage for themselves and their family. you will have a choice. for the first time ever in the united states, the companies will have to compete against each other waste on price and service.
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they will no longer the able to lock anybody else because of a pre-existing health condition. being a woman will no longer be a pre-existing condition. you cannot be charged more by your insurance company. very good news. and some of the rules which used to price out people out of the market are changing forever. here is why this is such a critical time for the latino communities. latinos have the highest rate of uninsurance in the country. we also know that they make about 25% of the individuals eligible for new coverage options under the law, and that will affect more than about 10 million people. in pennsylvania, about 9% of the states' eligible uninsured are hispanic. in philadelphia, that number is higher. it is about 17% of the eligible uninsured are latino. more of them are men than women. we know there are a number of young adults in the 18-to-34 category who need that coverage. i am the parent of two sons. i know that getting health insurance is not their top priority. they do not think even about health coverage. i'm not sure some days what they are thinking about. you can be sure it is not health insurance. getting attention is a priority. i would like to remind folks that we are an accident or illness or diagnosis away from what could be a lifetime of unpayable bills or treatment that could save a life. never before in this country have we had the opportunity that we have today.
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affordable coverage is within reach. to help individuals begin to think about enrollment, we have a website up and running. ours is easier than the one the mayor just recited. it is healthcare.gov. anyone can access the website today, begin to develop an account, get information about what is coming, get questions answered, and the website is designed to be consumer friendly and easy to access. it even has the kind of chat feature you have when you are shopping online. if you pause, somebody will pop up and say, do you want to have a conversation? we have a call center opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we have translators available to answer questions up to 150 language. that is up and running right now so that people can get their information. you heard the mayor reference the fact that there are now in person helpers beginning to populate communities across the country, including philadelphia, so all community health centers
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will have outreach and enroll met of individuals. navigators will be available in communities. we have organizations and volunteers who will be training staff to help, and i was pleased to hear the mayor talk about philadelphia, putting their own resources -- because we know some people are tech savvy and can go online, some people want to talk to a live person, and others need one-on-one help, and they may need questions answered over a series of months. that is why we have a six-month
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open enrollment. that begins on october 1. a brand-new day is coming. i share the mayor's hope that the pennsylvania legislature and the governor will reconsider the decision to expand medicaid, because absent dedicated expansion, there will be way too many citizens who will not have any access to affordable care. that would be a tragedy. let me just tell you because i think this is often a myth that is circulated. of the medicaid-eligible uninsured individuals, over 80% have a full-time worker in the family. these are people who are going to work every day, they just do not have employer-based coverage or do not have the income to afford 100% of coverage on their own. it is a big opportunity. the door is not closed by the federal government. there is no time that the offer runs out.
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the federal government for the first three years of medicaid expansion will pay 100% of the cost, 100%, of all the newly eligible individuals, and over the next seven years, for a 10- year period of time, the government share goes down, but never below 90%. it is always at a minimum a 90- 10 share, and that is a good deal for the state of pennsylvania. i am delighted to be here. i am delighted to have a chance to participate in the panel. i am to hear from held the, -- from hilda, who is part of the panel today. congresso is one of the champions we are working with today. in pennsylvania and around the country. president obama likes to remind us that change does not happen overnight. it does not often happen in
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washington alone. it really happens door to door, today in towns and communities across the country, with neighbors and friends talking to one another and with outreach going on, with people who are trusted. so all of you can be outreach helpers. you can talk to your family members, you can talk to your neighbors, you can talk to your church group, you can go and put a link on your facebook page, reminding people that on october 1 there is some new opportunities. we need that person-to-person coverage. this is an historic opportunity that we have never had in the united states. presidents for 70 years have
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been trying to deal with comprehensive reform, republicans and democrats. while it may seem this is a political debate, the debate is really over. the law was signed in march of 2010 by the president of the united states, and a year ago the supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the affordable care act, and president barack obama was reelected pretty overwhelmingly. this is the law and we are about implementing the law. it is great to be with all of you, and i look forward to working with you on a healthier, more prosperous philadelphia, pennsylvania, and the united
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>> she is so popular, people are imitating her clothes and hairstyle. really, they want a piece of france's for themselves. we always thought we owned the first lady, that she was someone we know. the pictures of the first lady became extremely popular. you can perch or -- purchase your own picture of her in your home. grover cleveland running for president, we also have mrs. cleveland running for first lady. >> the encore presentation of our original series, "first ladies," continues tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> on tomorrow's "washington journal," marilyn thompson. then, executive director federal funds information for states will focus on what will happen to state state funding if congress does not reach a budget deal. and then a councilman economics reporter for wall street journal will take your questions about the labor department's later regional -- latest regional jobs summary. the employment rate went up in 28 states and declined in eight states. live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. secretary sibelius spoke earlier today. she said hispanics are some of
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the highest rate of uninsured in among ethnic groups. this part is about 20 minutes. let's this is c-span townhall. with college students returning , with theand next president making it public education speech today and over the next day or two, we are going to focus tonight on a couple of education issues. we will spend the first hour talking about college costs. ,e will ask you the question is the cost of college worth it? we will give you a couple of ways to participate. the last half will focus on common core standards and charter schools.
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the first hour, the cost of college, is it worth it? the phone lines -- make sure you mute your television or radio when you call in. #c-spanchat. a broader on facebook. we will read some of the posts as we go through the evening and we will also hear from a variety of people from different points of view, including the head of the american association of university professors. we want to give you the breakdown from the president on his call today for proposals for lowering college costs by 2015. here is some of what he had to say. and we will hear from you.
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>> our first friday is aimed at undervalued for students, making sure families and tax pairs are getting what you paid for. today, i am directing our education secretary to reevaluate before the 2015 college year. right now, private rankings like u.s. news and world report puts out each year their rankings, and it encourages a lot of colleges to focus on ways to -- how do we game the numbers, and it actually rewards them, in some cases, for raising costs. i think we should rate colleges based on opportunity. are they helping students from all kinds of backgrounds succeed and on outcomes, on their value to students and parents. so that means metrics like how much debt does the average student leave with. how easy it is to pay off?
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how many students graduate on time? how well do those graduates do in the workforce? because the answers will help parents and students figure out how much value a college truly offers. there are schools out there who are terrific values. but there are also schools out there that have higher default rates than graduation rates. and taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing students to go to schools where the kids aren't graduating. that doesn't do anybody any good.[applause] and our ratings will also measure how successful colleges are at enrolling and graduating students who are on pell grants. and it will be my firm principle that our ratings have to be carefully designed to increase, not decrease, the opportunities for higher education for students who face economic or [applause]dvantages.
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so this is going to take a little time, but we think this can empower students and families to make good choices. and it will give any college the chance to show that it's making serious and consistent improvement. so a college may not be where it needs to be right now on value, but they'll have time to try to get better. and we want all the stakeholders in higher education -- students, parents, businesses, college administrators, professors -- to work with secretary duncan on this process. and over the next few months, he's going to host a series of public forums around the country to make sure we get these measures right. and then, over the next few years, we're going to work with congress to use those ratings to change how we allocate federal [applause]lleges. we are going to deliver on a promise we made last year, which is colleges that keep their
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tuition down and are providing high-quality education are the ones that are going to see their taxpayer funding go up. it is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results, and reward schools that deliver for american [cheerss and our future. and applause] >> president obama in buffalo earlier today. he also spoke in syracuse. c-span will cover those. the question we are asking you on c-span townhall this evening. the first question, is it work -- is education worth it? one from scott, who says, destroying the teachers union and their selfish, obnoxious behavior. matt says --
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we will talk about repealing in the last half-hour. let's get to your calls. is the cost of college worth it? this is jennifer. good evening. go ahead. >> colleges should be for education. it is not business. it is education. it is to broaden your horizons. college is not about getting a job. if you want to get a job, go get it. in the job market. if you want to broaden your eyes, go to college. as soon as we make college about jobs, that is when education comes in, that is so many people, a for-
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profit college went out of business. >> are you currently in college? i am a teacher in new haven. >> thank you for calling. our student line. tom is from riverside, california. where do you go to school? community college in riverside. one of the things i noticed, getting into classes and with tuition going up, every year here in california, it is too much. i am starting to hit that reality, should i continue and should i not? it is a high price to pay, especially with the sacrifice that i could be working or going to school. make more money in the long run. with all the prices going up,
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it is too difficult to pick. >> what is your goal? what kind of degree? >> i want to go into business administration. i am not sure i could even afford to transfer if i did. thef you go full-time at community college at riverside, what does that cost? >> $50. a little over $50 per unit for credit hours. i amank you for calling, checking a couple of tweets. here is one which says -- another one from jason, who says, why do college programs have to improve based on test scores? --
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>> george is in greensburg, pa on our republican line. caller: i would like to say i think a college education is worthless. if you're good children go there and they come out anti- god, anti-country, self- centered, and without any concern for people, it is a waste of time. i would say it is worth it if you go to a college that promotes good values and has teachers who promote those values. college kids you see, what kind of attitude do you think they come out with? >> it depends on the college.
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i live near a college and their students are outstanding. they have a real sense of morality and duty and things like that. but a lot of the people coming out of state schools and things like that, where you have professors that are atheist or anti-almost everything, they incorporate those values. >> let's go to our student line, nicole is in detroit. caller: i am currently a student at wayne state university. the question is is college worth the cost. it is not i feel worth the cost. we are facing a situation where i -- i may not be able to pay for classes in the fall. even over an academic issue, but over the content -- contract i have with housing. i might be kicked out of school this semester.
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>> you have a conflict with what? >> with the housing right now. >> is that because it is too expensive or there are too many people in the housing unit? >> just filed for bankruptcy, detroit. they are trying to increase my tuition. housing is too much. foricole, thank you calling in and sharing your story. this was the subject of an article earlier this week, and they pulled him out about student loans. "more students rely than ever on federal student loans aid. "more students rely than ever on federal student loans aid. she covered today's speech by president obama and we spoke to her earlier earlier in the afternoon for her thoughts. what new ground did the calls forbreak in
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lowering college costs? >> this is a more expansive agenda than he has laid out in the past. he has proposed paying some parts, to college outcomes, but this is the first time he has proposed tying the first thing into low income students, to geting students -- jobs to pay things off. it would be a fundamental reshaping of the federal aid program. largely unchanged for more than the -- more than 40 years. >> how much leverage does the government currently have in holding down cost? >> not all that much. that is the tricky question here. financial aid goes directly to the student and not colleges. there is not much they can do to force state colleges to do it they want, other than threatening to hold central asia or give students more central aid.
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they are really trying to figure out what they can do about this very complex college cost problem. student loan debt is over $1 trillion now. did the president talk about how to get any of that undercontrol? is this an admission admission by the administration that the efforts to fund colleges through more student aid have hit a brick wall, and they have to go through the schools themselves to help lower the tots? >> that is a fair way describe it. president obama is a big believer in financial aid. helping people to get to college. that will not be enough and the colleges themselves will have to do things differently or to do more to stay affordable. this is an effort to use financial aid as a carrot and stick to try to make them do that. >> if you had to name the number one factor in the calls -- the
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cause of the rapid rise in tuition, what would that be? >> that is a tough question. a lot of factors are driving it. the recession has been hard on state budgets. higher tuition. talking about colleges across sectors, it is really too multifaceted to point to a single cause. >> a number of members made comments after the president's the educationing and workforce chairman in the house and you tweeted about some of his comments earlier today when he said the ranking system could kurt tell innovation and lead to federal price controls. what are you getting at? >> house republicans do not seem ready to jump on board with this
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plan. many colleges are concerned. there is a sense this could be onsidered more of the same higher education as a whole. there have been proposals from republicans in the past to do rise control or something that looks very much like this, but that was about 10 years ago. passeda has definitely among house republicans. reporting atad her politico.com and follow her on twitter. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> back to our comments on c- span town hall this evening, asking you for the next 45 minutes or so, is the cost of college worth it? south dakota, democratic caller. caller: hello.
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are you doing? >> doing fine, thank you. good.: >> is the cost of college worth it? caller: definitely worth it. i earned a bachelor's degree from the university of south dakota. to dohat, i was not able a lot. they did not do a teaching track. i eventually started writing proposals and got a contract to native american cultural training. i cannot tell you any other experience that was more valuable to me. and to the poor as well. i am on my way to the montana state university to earn a masters degree in native the wholetudies. >> process started after you received your undergraduate degree? >> right. >> good luck, montana state? >>
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correct. >> good luck. let's hear from another student, michelle in st. petersburg, florida. >> i. four-year college for undergrad and an in law school now. i am optimistic about what the like when i be graduate and i hopefully will be able to find a job, but things are very tight in my profession, along with others. other professors are having a hard time finding a are aut lawyers, things lot more slim for us, as well. also, another struggle i have noticed among some of my friends they have a four-year finde and are not able to jobs because they are overqualified and the jobs are going to students who did a fast
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track program through a community college. our four-year degrees are diminishing in value. >> where did you do your four- year degree and where did you go to law school? >> atlanta for undergrad. >> you are able to live nearby and make the commute easier? >> yes. i live on campus. decision to come here based on finances, because i was offered a scholarship. it is really competitive out here. time where you can make a decision -- decision for what your hopes and dreams are, but you have to really take all things into consideration, such as finances. >> when you come out of law school, how much debt for law
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,chool? >> my debt surprisingly enough, i cannot even calculate. >> i did not mean to raise a sore subject. >> it is fine. helped out myp decision. >> thank you. we are asking our viewers, is the cost of college worth it? we will hear from the president of the universe you professors in just a bit. david covers economics and business issues for the new york times and posted today the story about boston colleges -- the cost of colleges. it is often exaggerated, including a chart looking at the rising college costs over ,he last 20 years, 1992-2002 and he writes in part of this article, the costs of increase
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in higher cadres and are not as high as they are made out to be. -- health ision obviously an example. prices have increased very rapidly for funeral services, daycare, legal advice, over time, the cost depending on skill and human labor go up here that is the reporting of david from the new york times. from massachusetts on the republican line. make sure you knew your television and radio and go ahead with your comment. caller: ok, basically one of the major contributions [indiscernible] wastor elizabeth warren making 350 thousand dollars. her husband was making $350,000. of ais three quarters
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million dollars for two of them. onecally, i think she had class she was giving. >> they were teaching at harvard? caller: correct. once again, they have tenure. there is no way to get out. that is the beginning. the fact we give all this money to these poor kids to put into these colleges, and they do not even know if they will get a job when they get out, the whole thing is ridiculous. you have to make sure if you give somebody money to go to college, that a job will be there when they get out. otherwise, you are throwing away half this trillion dollars. >> marty on the democrats line. >> good day. >> go ahead. you're on the air. >> i would like to say i have
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not heard from too many people -- the last i touched on it. there has to be a job available. what i did in college back in 1967, i took an aptitude test and found out what kinds of suitable for me. my life experience, would be a little bit happier by getting a job like that. they also told me at the pharmacy, the job teacher would be better. more of them. it worked out that way. i am retired now. vocational schools are underutilized and education is the best thing to give a kid. it is that her than giving them an inheritance. >> thank you for your call. we have a line set aside for students you can call in on. asking you if the cost of college is worth it.
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joining us from a university in ohio, the president of the american association of university professors, rudy, also an economics professor. thank you for joining us. caller: pleasure to be here. >> going back to the presidents comments as evening and is pushed, we are cutting college costs and setting standards for university and colleges. a federal policy by 2015, your organization, what is your reaction to the president's proposals and do you find common ground with what he had to say? >> the concerns are the same. we are definitely concerned about the rising tide of student debt and tuition. fundamentallyr
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in how to approach dealing with the problem. the idea of a report card, i think, is something out of a playbook of no child left behind. i do not think it has worked real well in k-12. i do not think it will work really well in higher education. there is a potential for a myriad of problems in establishing the report card and coming up with comparable data and, in the long run, one of the things that will likely lead to is a kind of standardization of the curriculum and basically taking control of the curriculum out of the hands of the faculty. i think that will be bad for students and dad for higher education. >> your organization, what to use c as the number one way
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colleges could work to keep costs down? >> they need to take a long look at -- long look about the priorities they have, where they spend their money. there has been a tremendous growth in the number of administrators in colleges and atadministrative salary colleges. there are a lot of things colleges are doing that are not necessarily relating to their core mission, bearing different kinds of entertainment. one example is intercollegiate athletics. ,t almost every university intercollegiate athletics is heavily subsidized. that is not really the core mission of teaching students and producing new knowledge.
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it is a combination of those things. other thing is it is really not just a matter of controlling costs. the distinguished men to train what is happening to the price of higher education and and what is happening to the cost. the price is rising more rapidly than the cost, primarily because of cuts in spending. int is the real culprit rising tuition, particularly in more recent years. and so, i think having government, state government and the federal government, really invest more in college, would go a long way toward helping to price orme of the tuition increases.
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what most students and their parents are concerned about. this weekort earlier said, for the first time, more than 50% of students at american colleges get some sort of federal student aid. do you think the increased amount of federal student aid is a big factor in driving up college costs? if colleges know the money is available, it is easier for them to raise tuition or other fees. is that a factor? .aller: >> i do not think so most studies i have seen would suggest that increases in aid are not something driving up -- aon, that, these are lot of it of course is aid distributed in a very on even way.
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one of the things we ought to be taking a look at is particularly , which-profit sector has an exceedingly bad record and many of those students are .he recipients of aid in the public sector, to a large degree, when you look at the rising prices, there is a very strong correlation with the decline in state aid, which has been going on now. there have been ups and downs. for a long time, for the last 30 years, effectively, we have been dis-investing in public higher education. president of the american association of university professors, joining
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me this evening from ohio. thank you for your country meeting to the conversation this evening. >> it has been a pleasure talking with you. >> more calls and comments for the next half hour. we will talk about calls and comments and the presidents comments earlier today. a couple of tweaks before we get back to that. august augusteir recess and we hold our c-span town hall over the next month. speaking of ohio, the congressman from ohio says, -- , holding a town hall this evening in mississippi -- on instagramcture of the folks coming into that town hall in mississippi. also this evening, john boehner is holding a conference call with republicans. politico reports on that.
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the headline -- they write the republican leadership hold a conference this evening. topics expected to be discussed include immigration reform legislation, government funding and the debt ceiling, and those issues are expected to be top priorities in the fall. they said conference calls of this nature are typical house has an out of session for three weeks. they will be back in session in september. pennsylvania, republican line. caller: hi. my son is a student going to college. he is going to a private college. my husband and i are both middle-class americans. i am a teacher. the costs are daunting. done withe he is inool completely, $250,000 loans.
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he wants to be an orthopedic surgeon. >> right. caller: of course you when you talk to move ahead and break those barriers. foret a bill in the mail 30,000 something dollars every few months. loans is he taking on himself and how much are you and your husband taking on? caller: we are tying to do the best we can. we are paying as much as we can. we also have a junior in high school. they are both top students. deserve for all of their hard work and operative put in all of these years, why shouldn't they have wonderful careers? careers -- my son wants to be a surgeon and help other people.
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openes to a college and is stunned service and helping others. he is focused in his studies. -- and focused on service and helping others. he is focused in his studies. >> thank you for your call. we'll hear from karen, a student in texas. caller: hi. i think education is important. the cost of college is far too high. i agree with previous collars that college is only worth it as long as there is a job available after you graduate to pay off student loans. you can eliminate thousands of and not have a great -- you can have thousands of dollars of debt for a loan and not have a job to show for it.
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it really doesn't make sense to waste dollars for people to get degrees in areas that are not going to benefit the economy. that is just my personal view. >> thank you. recently on book tv, we covered a discussion on a book about the costs of college and whether it is worth it. here is a look. [video clip] >> one third of millennial's regret going to college. it was better for them to work and earn money. 42% call it overwhelming. 35% of graduates with debt are more than 90 days to link went on their student loans. the average graduate in 2013 at a debt burden of around $30,000. the median debt burden is $14,000. it is still quite a hefty sum of
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money to be burdened with when he come out of graduate. says report in congress student loans have increased late 2007billion in to under $1 trillion in 2013. in only six, five years, we have doubled the amount of debt in this country with pretty bad effects. the major culprit with this begins with the schools themselves. aey are capitalizing on prominent social belief that to make it in the labor force as a worker, as a human being, you need a college degree. experience, i see people and meet people who do not have college degrees.
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there is a feeling in themselves and the perception by other people that if you are without a college degree, you somehow messed up in life. i do not think that is a good thing. i do not think that is america. rices toan raise capture students who can pay full price. prices to capture students who can pay full price. people will pay that because that brand is synonymous with achievement in american life. what has happened is a lot of second-tier schools have followed suit. they have also raised their tuition to levels that most people cannot pay. not to make schools the whipping boy, but george washington university is one school exemplar of this.
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it is the most expensive school and the country, but no one would say it is of the highest quality. it is capitalizing on the belief that price is synonymous with quality. if you are a parent or student who maybe is uninformed about the college process or informed, you think, if i said make it there, you will have a great shot at achievement. there are a lot of kids out of gw coming out with huge amounts of student loan debt. when colleges capture this money, they sink it into expensive building projects and student centers and rock timing walls and things like that. they are fun. i went to american university. i was a beneficiary of a lot of these amenities. in truth, they were unessential to the learning process. i would have been happier less a less nicehaving dorm room or cafeteria or something like that.
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play a game with financial aid for low income students, which i think is at times somewhat despicable. there is the ubiquity of student loans. anyone who wants a student loan in america from the federal government can get one. schools like to raise their prices and do not have a lot of compunction about doing that. there is a big kerry of hypocrisy. -- this is a big area of hypocrisy. fairness --ce, there are various moral perspectives and bettering the world, and that is fine, but if you are going to hold to notions of economic and social betterment as universities do come you better be prepared to be honest with students when they are ready to sign $20,000
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of a promise there are no per year for your student loans. fast promissory note -- promissory note for your student loans. >> back to your phone calls in a minute. we will also talk about k-12 common core. -- common core standards. here is a headline from "the washington times." law -- holder id sues texas to stop voter id law, congressional maps. say they are intentionally try to discriminate against minorities. the lawsuit was a response to a june supreme court ruling on the civil rights voting rights act
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that limited the federal government's ability to demand prior approval of changes to its voting loss. "we will not allow the supreme court's decision to be interpreted to suppress voting rights. take actionnt will against restrictions that tend to hinder access to the ballot box, no matter where it occurs." that was attorney general eric holder. there is a headline tonight. gop -- obamacare showdown crisis. there is a letter written to the speaker john boehner. the story is that house republicans representing the most conservative of their party urged to defund obamacare. spearheaded by a republican of north carolina. it does not mention the government shutdown.
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that is what the strategy would provoke by an appeal. also, one more story. thenational journal has story about hearings coming up on climate change. you might have heard about additional evidence on global warming. how stupid he plans mega hearing on climate change -- the house gop plans mega hearing on climate change on september 8 of 13nd inviting leaders federal agencies to testify. it will be the first time since president obama unveiled his limit action plans in june. officials will testify in capitol hill. we will get back to the conversation on the costs of college. illinois. democrat line. caller: hello.
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>> hi there. do us a favor and you to your tv. caller: my name is liz. i work as a student loan counselor for the past 13 and a half years. what we work with is a lot of schools and students. in the past 13 years, i have seen the amount of student loan debt skyrocket in the amount of fory that is being charged the students. one of the big problems is so parents, thethe students, do not understand how to repay their student loans and they do not understand what the requirements are to repay them. they stick their loans into what is called for parents. they get this huge amount of capitalized interest added onto their loans. they are building up chubby
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loans. years, theyf four 03 times as much as they borrowed -- they owe three times as much as they borrowed. some look at continuing college. they are looking at minimum wage or they have no jobs. >> from your experience, where does the fault lie? in the beginning where they do not understand what they are undertaking? or are the loans not explain as clearly? a lot of them are so excited about going to college. they have this opportunity. tore is no explanation as what you will get into and how you'll repay it. these are the requirements you will have. i have had people tell me, i
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thought -- i got financial aid. i do not have to pay it back. or someone said, i got my loan from fafsa. no, you got it from the government. you owe it to a lender or servicer. they really do not understand how to go about paying it back. >> when a student graduates from college, along with that diploma, are you handed a statement saying, here is what you pay and here is what you owe and this will be due in six months? is that typical? >> no. -- and we areimes going through servers or changes -- is that they really do not understand. if they called their servicer, what the not tell them
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exact amount of the bill will be. about thet know possibility of expanding it and have to defer it. that is what we do. when they are leaving school, we go through a whole thing where we explain to them, this is what is coming up. the majority of them never looked at it while they were in school. they do not know how much they even borrowed. >> thank you for sharing all of that information and all of your experiences. let us hear from a student. nicholas from pennsylvania. the student line. caller: hi there. >> where are you going to
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school? caller: i'm a business student. i'm looking at a few colleges in d.c., such as american university. >> without getting too personal, are you concerned about being able to pay for it? caller: absolutely. i like that segment from book tv. it spoke truth. i hear it from my friends all the time. they say, i'm going to a $50,000 per school. they must be superior. that is not always the case. colleges are getting more expensive. it is hard to remember that in most cases it is the greatest investment you'll make in yourself. statistics are thrown around at my high school all the time. those who go to college make about $1 million more in their lifetime. you hope to get it back. a have your folks giving you
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dollar amount in which you can i go above this amount? caller: at this point, no. it is also that they push hard for making sure i am applying for scholarships and getting financial aid. that is where it will help. with us you for being this evening. we covered a recent hearing with arnie duncan -- arne duncan. he was asked about the i'm initiative costs and colleges. here is what he had to say. [video clip] last week i had the opportunity to meet with more than a dozen college university presidents from my district and surrounding districts to discuss the issue of the high costs of higher education and the cost the students have of loan debt.
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we know that the department of education requires colleges and universities to collect a great deal of information and report that information to the .epartment that level of reporting continues to grow. secretary since it comes back to the student, including the reporting, has anyone in your department looked at the financial impact of all of this record-keeping and what the universities and the stooges? >> great question -- that universities and the students? question. we have questions that are
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redundant or burden some. those are the kinds of things we do not want to impose on folks. helpful. dollars are scarce. we do not want to waste time or resources. we want them to focus on completion rates and not paperwork. >> we appreciate that. do you have any list rations of what you are doing? challenge is to ask questions. i do not give concrete specific to dues. the more specific you can deal , thethis piece of data more concrete you can be, that is helpful. the bigger issue is the college costs.
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lot to make it easy for us to apply for financial aid. we have incentivized three things -- states to invest it, responsibility come incentivize universities -- response ability, incentivize -- responsibility come incentivize universities. we want to be a partner. >> back to our question, is the cost of college worth it? 202-585-3885 for republicans. 202-585-3886 for democrats. 202-585-3887 for students. #cspan chat. --e are a couple of tweets
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wes one is from anthony -- need college to compete internationally. reward those schools who are keeping college affordable and still maintain quality. studentslast says -- why such myopic college focus? many jobs that require college education can be shipped overseas. let's also build up the trades like germany. next caller. independent, but there wasn't an independent phone line. i think we all come to an agreement that it is practically a gamble. -- there's one thing i wanted to comment on. no one has really talked about it. are loans that is almost a subdivision of welfare. division that my
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can i get government assistance turn to student loans because it is a loan that cannot be denied. they get extra money to help pay for housing and things i that. that has put a lot of people into debt and they have no intention of ever graduating. they have low-paying jobs. >> don't they have to have be doing some sort of college to get a student loan? caller: right. but their intention is not to get education. it is to get money to stay afloat. it is a loan that cannot be denied. i do not know if that affects anyone else. i wonder if they can do anything to make restrictions on who can get in or something to fix that.
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there are manyct people who went back to college for the simple fact that they can get money to help them in housing and their low-end jobs. onant to touch on one thing education -- the structure of our education system, it is followerse we make instead of making leaders. i wish they would teach kids to lead instead of following. teach them how to great businesses. something like that. >> thank you. tom in florida on the democrat line. is the cost of college were they? caller: yes.
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thank you for taking my call. definitely. i speak from my own standpoint. minority.l, i'm the degree throughe the va. part of it paid by the va and part of it paid that my parents. it, it all depends on what you pursue in life. the ring you buy when you graduate. ,f you wear it for the people maybe the name of the university. in my case, i wear it for myself. i graduated for myself. not for anyone else. it was a goal i wanted to obtain. -- now they are
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notving the person that is part of the medical land. -- plan. he followed me so far? are forcing people to -- do you follow me so far? there are forcing people to buy their own insurance. if you do not have an education, you will not be able to obtain such benefits. acquire a good physician in order to afford insurance. the other part i want to close my statement in is that we have to remember capitalism has taken more people out of poverty than economical or
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shape.ental you have to have the knowledge. unfortunately, in grade school you get the basics. you have to go to all of those motions to understand accounting process. you have to understand the managerial process. >> before we let you go, where did you graduate from question mark caller: i university -- where did you graduate from? caller: from a university. >> great. thank you for joining us this evening. we will shift gears for a bit. we will look at the common core standards that are being shifted a little bit. let us hear from houston on our student line.
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welcome. houston, texas. go ahead. caller: hello. >> you are on the air. a&mer: i go to texas university. i have a comment whether there is a relationship between student loans and graduation. when you are a professor, you're theone who benefits from availability of student loans. allows more students to attend the university. there would be an availability of liquid cash that comes to the university. providing student loans to raising tuition, special private universities, to havingnother side
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student loans available. you raise the price of tuition across the board. how far along are you in your education at a&m? >> junior year this fall. >> good luck to you. we go to alabama. go ahead. republican line. caller: yes. thank you for taking my call. i should mention that it seems to me like the only reason to most people have an incentive to -- i'm school is for glad he mentioned the ivy leagues. ande's a lot of social
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future business partners through that type of school. thatne else commented that looking for.s >> he was looking to go to an ivy league school or what kind of relationships could be formed? mainly anding it is universities -- i think it is mainly universities. if you have that gap between ivy league's and student aid, it aems like there's nothing for middle-class student. >> let's get more calls on the costs of college. we'll hear from an assistant editor regarding common core standards for k-12.
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students return to school. mitchell. indiana. caller: hi. misty for taking my call. i feel like college is not worth it at the moment -- thank you for taking my call. i feel like college is not worth it at the moment. tuition is going up. >> where do you go to school? caller: a university. it seems that students are applied more pressure at the schools. costs.re increasing >> mitchell, thank you for your call. we change the focus of the conversation. thank you for all of your calls on the cost of college. next we will look at k-12
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education and what the federal government role is in that. the so-called common core standards in schools this year. we will speak to that assistant editor of a publication. was asked about a question at a town hall last week. about a was asked question at a town hall last week. [video clip] >> i'm very concerned about something that was very subtly passed all across the land that affects all of our children. through theome legislature. it has come from the department, the state department of educationa. is a federal takeover of , including all of
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our children. it includes private schools and homeschooled children. it is called common core. i'm very concerned about this. it is data collection on all of our children, including putting them in a national database with private information. 415 items on every child. the collect this database involving that. they are breaking three federal laws. they are going against the 10th amendment. that states are to be in control of education. state and local control. they have changed the family rights and privacy law so that they can collect all of this information and the purpose of it is to dumb down our children indoctrinate indoctrinate themh
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left-wing ideology so they will wing ideas of our government -- of our country and our countries history. it is dumbing them down. teachers and parents that do know about it are very concerned . i talked to a teacher last night at the county fair. they were very upset. most parents do not even know about it. they sneak it through going through that state department of education. they are the ones who signed this on to the consortium that we are a part of. it passes a line that we have never passed before. it takes away any say from becausewithin the state
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it has been given control to this consortium. there is nobody to go to if we do not like it or if we want to change it. duncan, thererne needs to be hearings on him and his activities. i learned yesterday that our kellogg's foundation has given $400,000 to the department of education so they could form data information on all of the preschoolers. >> i'm against common core. [applause] i do not want the federal government telling our schools what to do. i think that is a bad idea. teachers do not like it. it is not good for students. education should be something that is handled locally. we should have states competing to have the best system rather than having one standard that
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creates problems for the whole country. i'm against common core. we should return control to local families and local governments. are watching c-span town hall here on c-span and c-span radio every tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. we focus on public policy and politics as congress is in recess. we will stay on education and look at the common core standards you heard about in the justin amash town hall meeting from last week. joining us is assistant editor for -- thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> make a comment on what the standards are and when they are expected to be implemented. >> common core was an initiative that began in 2009-
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2010. at that time, every state had in own set of standards english, arts, mathematics. state standards are so jampacked with content. it was impossible to spend time on any one thing in depth. also, cross state lines, educators lacked a common language for key subjects. we wanted them to dig more deeply in the topic and really understand mathematical .rinciples the common core standards are
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something that many states have accepted as are standard. it is areas that students need to know. it is not a curriculum. they do not tell you that you need to spend five weeks on or cover "to kill a mockingbird." there are broad states of should --of how they of what they should know kindergarten through 12th grade. there was a story in "the new york times" earlier this week. critics pounced on the headline. why has the debut been rocky? that is the argument critics have been making. >> people were criticizing the standards on two fronts. there are some who object to the content and others who reject on
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-- object on political grounds. let's begin with the political argument. the federal government did not have a hand in writing any standards, but a gave states incentives to adopt them. there are two main methods. there was some competitive funding that was appropriated through legislation in 2009. as part of that, the federal government said, we would like to make some changes to the education system. we need competition. it college and career readiness standards. they are interested in doing a common core. they went ahead and adopted the common core. that was written so they could master all of the skills k-12.
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and so, the other thing, we will allow you to waive the no child left behind act. that law was signed in by george w. bush. it is governed programs for disadvantaged students. essentially we hear from conservatives, tea party members in particular, that this is inappropriate. we also hear that there are progressives, evil on the left end of the spectrum -- people on spectrum -- of the there might be more standardized testing.
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you have people on the left and the right who have critiques of the standards. there are concerns about the ontent and the skepticism fairly nuanced issues. standards ineracy which they expect students to work a lot with textbooks, including nonfiction and not just fiction. diaries. there are some traditional things. too, you might be expecting much, but they have to grapple text content. there are some struggling readers. >> we will open up the phone lines in a minute.
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we will ask our viewers about the government's role in k-12 education -- the government's education.2 states get a warning about the no child left behind. they said the education department last thursday said that three of the 40 states granted waivers from the no child left behind law were at high risk of losing them. what is going on with that law as it stands now? state hasan half the been granted waivers from some provisions of the law. there was a timeline in which students were supposed to be at grade level for reading and math. clearly that did not happen in most states. one of the waivers is that timeline provision.
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--e than half of the states i think i will probably get the grantedrong -- have provisions. in order to get the waivers, they had to agree to some changes. one is to adopt systems for teachers that included information on academic progress of the students. if you are a good teacher, student should be making enough academic progress each year. referenced a you minute ago, they have problems getting their system into place he had been given a little bit of a red flag in the department on that. >> joining us on skype is stephen sawchuck, is this an editor for education week. thank you for the update on common core and more. good to have you with us. --open up our foreign lines we open up our phone lines.
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what is the role of the federal education --nk-12 for the government in k-12 education? the line for republicans is 202- 585-3885. the line for democrats is 202- 585-3886. the line for parents is 202-585- 3887. they were talking about student loans and a plan for federal spending by the president. he knew it would be a tough sell on capital hill, but he would not need congressional authority. how is that possible? that was the question. why would it be federally issued when it should be more of a
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state issue question mark >> -- more of a state issue question mark -- issue? >> they would evaluate colleges on several criteria, including average tuition and student loan debt, graduation rates, and average earnings after graduation. north carolina. democrat line. caller: hi. i'm an independent, but you do not have a line for that. i love the idea of the common core. i saw that the lady was concerned about the data information being taken from the students. in order to find out the program will work, who is benefiting and who is not, that is needed.
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i have no problem with the data being taken. some say there is a program to indoctrinate students. i have went to school in three different countries. thatf the problems here is you can go to school in new york, don't finish high school, go to a school in north carolina, and they tell you you do not have enough classes to graduate. we have to keep you back to grades and you go to another state and they say we have to put you forward. there needs to be some type of standard nationwide in order for being lefto overcome behind.
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the states are asking for a waiver. --y should not give teachers they do not give teachers and the schools enough time. they need more time. >> we go to steve on our parents line. domestic terrorists -- >> did you say -- caller: yes. >> where did you read that? caller: on one of the websites. true, i cannot understand where this country is going in terms of kids
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education. >> here is matalin in chicago. excuse me. republican line. caller: hello. i am a teacher that has recently retired. , they core for parents should not be for the idea. the idea behind common core is expectationhers an of what students will know when they come to their classrooms. if you are in second grade or in high school and you get a student, you expect him or her to know certain things where you need to -- no certain things. -- know certain things. we need to be concerned is the
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hours that teachers are spending spending -- collecting data and keeping records. you that you will loose your teachers because they will not do this. fact -- or it will affect construction. we are asking that the government's role in k-12 education. we are keeping our eye on other town halls in the country. capitol hill newspaper as a daily tally of where they are in terms of numbers. oklahoma.he top was
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kentucky and indiana were second and third. there was a democratic lawmaker that cracked the top 10. we will hear from chicago. democrat line. christine. christian comics use me. what do you think the role of federal government in k-12 education? christian, chicago. thank you -- >> thank you for taking my call.
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for the government to implement common core is very unfortunate. reasons have a potential to say, this is the bar. i will help you get to that bar. this is in a sense your own limitation. teachers will have the of --tive to be capable kids will be done down by the system. they will not have the initiative to become something. i will just pass my classes to make ends meet. that will fall on through college as well. i say that because of the way some spoke about this previously that academic system is creating followers as opposed to leaders. most students say they will go to school and do what they have to do and that is it.
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system.l follow the they will go to school and go to college and get a job. >> one of the issues that comes -- school choice and vouchers .nd charter schools that was discussed at a panel discussion about school choice. [video clip] >> we have come to a fork in the road in education. one side, education freedom in the form of school choice. on the other side, integrated , educationon core standards. friedman, was a father of the school choice movement. thate from the idea educational opportunity, giving students -- getting students out of zip code can find areas would
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allow competition and all of great opportunity. we have seen this in the form of vouchers. it is a washington device. it pushes the idea that spending more money wouldn't equal educational outcomes. we have not seen any of this since 1970. in the billions of dollars of and no childtives left behind waivers to states that signed onto the common core pushed on by the obama administration are not likely to induce any kind of further educational outcome either. the threat to school choice is also at stake. nd act standards being conformed to the common core standards.
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what does the common core containing? --h standards that are not that are poorly sequenced. america sees to pass gas choice essential is education -- .merica sees two paths -- we start with education. >> back to your calls on education k-12. pleasant hope, missouri. you are a mom. caller: yes. >> go ahead. caller: our small town does not have the money. this is an unfunded mandate. tonschool district has put
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into all of the technology and the wi-fi for computers to comply with the standards. funds. do not have the those funds will take away money for the kids, for their learning. we also know that 2% move across the nation. the idea that this has to be standard so that the few who do not have to adjust, that is outrageous that the men have to change everything. -- the many have to change everything. work in groupso to come up with an answer and they are all wrong. what you doing that? >> -- what do you do with that? i have two older children that grew up here and went to school here.
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i know they're not teaching what they learned. it is supposed to be at a deeper understanding of less information. >> you do not think they are as far along as you two older children were? caller: absolutely not. >> thank you for sharing your story. we are looking at "the washington post" for an education poll. most americans are sick of high- stakes standardized test reports. pollell-regarded annual shows most americans do not like the high-stakes standardized testing that dominates education . have never heard of the common core standards that are being implemented in the country. there was a gallup poll released wednesday. it was a picture of where public sentiment lies in regards to public education. polledhan 25% of those
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believed increased standardized testing has helped performance at local public schools. 58% of americans polled rejected using student scores from standardized testing to evaluate .eachers almost two out of three of those polled never heard of the common standards. sam in los angeles. republican line. caller: yes. i'm a seventh grade teacher in los angeles. -- i get kids at the fourth and fifth grade level even though they are in the seventh grade. i bring them up. , i'm the common core supposed to start with proportions and have the kids grasp of the answers and show the relevancy of their answers. that is not possible. kids,res go up for the but this will handcuff me
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unbeatable to give them the rounding that they need to be successful at the next level. disappointing. i will have to start the seventh grade next year and the kids i get will only have -- why don't they start in the beginning with kindergarten? right now they are just throwing it out at all levels. this will not work for a while. kids from a charter school just before the testing in may in california, they just dump them. their scores are low. just beforeme to me testing. it is set for charter schools. if you live across the street where the scores are low, they will dumping you in april. -- my kidsre i get
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do not speak english. they were low skilled in english. it is hard for them to understand. >> this is the l.a. unified school district? caller: the l.a. unified school district. there is no overhead. we do not have computers for the kids. the computer on that desk is a giant box from the 1990s. they'll never give them an ipad. the kids are asking me, do i get games question might i get apps? aren't you worried about your education and future? no. they want games and be able to take it home. i get all of these holidays coming up. three weeks in christmas. have not reported to school because they are still in vacation around the world. i tell me, we are not coming up
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for september. my family is from mexico. why would we show up early? >> thank you for calling. here are some tweets -- -- common core standards are experimental, expensive, controversial and have not been piloted. spencer says -- wish both sides of the common core would stop politicizing educators. harold says -- we complain about college construction get students chose schools because of the new jim, computers, etc. computers, etc. democrat line. caller: i think the idea of the common core makes sense across the board nationally. they should be true in new york
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-- it should be true in new york and in another state. it is hard. it will be the same thing with no child left behind. every year you will have students and teachers will not be able to teach the subject. they will be teaching the answers to these tests. it goes back to the college debate. most students in college our products of the no child left behind. that education only comes from authorities and there's only one right answer and which you cannot seek knowledge is built into the system as of now. there are research papers and the idea of thesis is -- thesis being an educational tool does not make sense. think the idea makes sense,
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but sort of integrating that into the system. it does not really work out one to take it out of the heretical round. >> thank you for tying up the discussion. as a matter of fact, that will lead off on "washington journal" tomorrow morning. bill carry on the conversation -- they will carry on the conversation -- is the cost of college worth it? there's a story about the members of congress who take trips overseas paid for by lobbyists. we will discuss possible cuts in federal aid to states with marsha howard. show focus on what could happen if state funding

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